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ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
AND THE JEWS 



By ISAAC MARKENS 

author of 
"The Hebrews in America" 



NEW YORK 

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR 

COPYRIGHT, 1909 

BY ISAAC MARKENS 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooies Received 

MAR 13 1909 

Copyrittnt Entry 

(CLASS (X.. XXc. No. 

COPY B. 



t^^to** 



LINCOLN AND THE JEWS. 

Since the name of Abraham Lincoln has been linked with 
no stirring event in connection with American Judaism it 
follows that the subject " Lincoln and the Jews," may possibly 
be lacking in the essentials demanding treatment at the hands 
of the critical historian. Nevertheless, as a student of the 
great war President the writer has been impressed by the vast 
amount of interesting material bearing upon his relations to 
the Jews, which it occurs to him is worthy of compilation and 
preservation. A contribution of this character seems specially 
fitting at the present time in view of the centenary of the one 
whose gaunt figure towers above all others in the galaxy of 
American heroes — " the first of our countrymen to reach the 
lonely heights of immortal fame." 

The Jews of the United States formed but a small portion 
of the population in Lincoln's time. The President of the 
Board of Delegates of American Israelites, their representa- 
tive organization, estimated their number in the loyal States 
near the close of 1861 at not less than 200,000, which figures 
are now regarded as excessive. The Rev. Isaac Leeser as late 
as 1865 could not figure the entire Jewish population of the 
United States as exceeding 200,000, although he admitted 
that double that number had been estimated by others. 

Political sentiment was then divided and found expression 
largely through the Occident, a monthly, published by Rev. 
Isaac Leeser in Philadelphia ; the Jewish Messenger, a weekly, 
conducted by Rev. Samuel M. Isaacs in New York, and the 
Israelite, a weekly, edited by Rev. Isaac M. Wise in Cincin- 
nati. Rabbis and laymen of learning and eloquence were 

3 



conspicuous in the political arena, both by voice and pen and 
to some of these we shall refer. Arrayed with the party rep- 
resented by Lincoln was Rabbi David Einhorn, who published 
in Baltimore a German monthly called Sinai, devoted to the 
anti-slavery movement. Eabbi Isaacs unreservedly favored 
the preservation of the Union and the policy of Lincoln. 
In Philadelphia Eabbi Sabato Morais proved such a potential 
factor in rousing patriotic sentiment that he was elected an 
honorary member of the Union League Club of that city. 
Rabbi Liebman Adler of Chicago, besides patriotic appeals to 
his countrymen, sent his only son to serve in the ranks of an 
Illinois regiment. Dr. Abraham B. Arnold of Baltimore, 
arrayed himself with the Republican party on the election of 
Lincoln and was made a member of the State Executive Com- 
mittee of Maryland. A former Assistant United States Dis- 
trict Attorney of New York, Philip J. Joachimsen, who had 
secured the first conviction for slave trading, was a warm 
admirer of Lincoln and raised a regiment of troops which 
rendered good service. 

The pro-slavery faction, by no means insignificant in num- 
bers, had few leaders, their most earnest advocate being Rabbi 
Morris J. Raphall, of New York, author of Post-Biblical 
History of the Jews. In a pamphlet entitled Bible View of 
Slavery, published shortly after Lincoln's election, he sought 
to show that the " Divine Institution " had Scriptural sanc- 
tion, a proposition by no means original, Rev. Leander Ker of 
Missouri having taken the same ground as early as 1853 in a 
book, Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible. Mr. Leeser, while 
sustaining Raphall, deplored his utterances as untimely, and 
Michael Heilprin in an article in the New York Tribune com- 
pletely demonstrated the fallacy of Raphall's contention. 

Writing from Philadelphia to the Israelite en January 13, 
1861, Rabbi Wise said it was "not so much the election of 
Lincoln in itself that threatened the destruction of the Union 
as the speeches of Lincoln and his colleagues on the irre- 



pressible conflict doctrine." This was coupled with a tribute 
to President Buchanan, the then occupant of the White House, 
who from Eabbi Wise's standpoint " has shown himself to be 
a full statesman and only now are the North appreciating 
his conservative administration." While deprecating the 
threatened dissolution of the Union Eabbi Wise indulged in 
frequent humorous flings at Lincoln after his election, com- 
paring him to " a country squire who would look queer in the 
White House with his primitive manner." He also protested 
against his entertainment while passing through Cincinnati 
on his way to Washington. Later on his admiration for Lin- 
coln was unbounded. In the course of an address following 
the President's death and published in the Cincinnati Com- 
mercial of April 20, 1865, he thus attempted to prove that 
he was one of the chosen people : " Abraham Lincoln believed 
himself to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He 
supposed himself to be of Hebrew parentage, he said so in my 
presence, and indeed he possessed the common features of the . / 
Hebrew race both in countenance and features." As a matter 
of fact Lincoln's knowledge of his ancestry was vague — so 
much so that his statement to Dr. Wise must be accepted as 
nothing more than a bit of pleasantry. Hon. Eobert T. Lin- 
coln states in reply to an inquiry of the writer, that he had 
" never before heard that his father supposed he had any 
Jewish ancestry." 

Lincoln's policy was severely attacked in the California 
State Convention of the Breckinridge party held at Sacra- 
mento on June 11, 1861, by Solomon Heydenfeldt, a brilliant 
jurist of that State and a native of South Carolina. An 
example of his attitude appears in the published proceedings 
of that convention, wherein he refers in the course of the 
debates to " the Democrats of the Eastern States struggling 
against the tyranny of the administration, their voices being 
drowned by the music of Lincoln's drums." 



President Lincoln's administration was marked by a few 
noteworthy incidents affecting the Jews as a body, the most 
important being the appointment of a Jewish chaplain in 
1861-62, and the proposed expulsion of the Jews " as a class " 
from within the lines of General Grant's army in 1862-63. 
Here it may be proper to note that the President on two 
occasions was sharply reproved by the Jews for the objection- 
able phraseology of his State papers. 

In his first inaugural orders he declared: 

Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on 
Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still com- 
petent to adjust in the best way our present difficulty. 

In his " General Order Eespecting the Observation of the 
Sabbath Day in the Army and Navy," issued November 15, 
1862, he announced: 

The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly 
rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becom- 
ing deference to the best sentiments of a Christian people, and a 
due regard for the Divine will demand that Sunday labor in the 
Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. 

This order provoked more or less public discussion and 
elicited a lengthy address to the President from one B. 
Behrend, of Narrowsburg, N. Y., the father of a Jewish soldier 
in the service, on the ground that " thousands in the army 
who celebrate another day as Sunday should be allowed to 
celebrate that day which they think is the right day according 
to their own consciences." The Occident shared in these views 
and urged that Jewish soldiers should be free from unneces- 
sary work on their Sabbath. While the alleged sectarian 
character of these compositions subjected the President to 
considerable criticism, his utterances were soon lost sight of 
in the more stirring events of the day. 

In the United States Senate May 22, 1860, Judah P. Benja- 
min spoke in scathing terms of Stephen A. Douglas and 



lauded Lincoln, the question under consideration being certain 
measures introduced by Jefferson Davis on the subject of 
State Eights and Slavery. Benjamin's address on this occa- 
sion occupies several pages of the Congressional Globe, 1859- 
60, Part III. The Senator from Louisiana therein charged 
Douglas with inconsistency and evasion in his debates with 
Lincoln, referred to his Jonesboro address as " nonsense " and 
says Douglas copied from Lincoln's dispute with him. Lin- 
coln had just been nominated for the Presidency. The 
nomination of Douglas was still in the balance. How far he 
had lost caste with the Southern leaders is evidenced by this 
excoriation by Benjamin : 

I have been obliged to pluck down my idol from his place on 
high, and to refuse him any more support or confidence as a 
member of the Democratic party. His adversary stood upon prin- 
ciple and was beaten, and lo! he is a candidate of a mighty party 
for the Presidency of the United States. One stood on principle — 
was defeated. To-day where stands he? The other faltered — 
received the prize, but to-day where stands he? He is a fallen 
star; we have separated from him. 

Eeferring further to the joint debates and more especially 
to Lincoln's declarations at Freeport in reply to interroga- 
tions of Douglas, regarding his position in the slavery ques- 
tion, he further complimented Lincoln in these words : 

In that contest, the candidates for the Senate of the United 
States in the State of Illinois went before the people. They 
agreed to discuss the issue; they put questions to each other 
for answer, and I must say here, for I must be just to all, 
that I have been surprised in the examination that I have made 
again within the last few days of this discussion between Mr. 
Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, to find that Mr. Lincoln is a far more 
conservative man, unless he has since changed his opinions, than 
I had supposed him to be. There was no dodging on his part. It 
is impossible not to admire the perfect candor and frankness 
with which his answers are given — no equivocation, no evasion. 



8 



The Appointment of a Jewish Aemy Chaplain. 

The Jewish Chaplain question was a matter of some signifi- 
cance and grew out of the refusal of Secretary of War Simon 
Cameron in the fall of 1861 to grant the application of Rev. 
Dr. Arnold Fischel for appointment as Chaplain of the 
Cameron Dragoons, a New York regiment largely composed 
of Jews, Fischel being informed by Cameron that favorable 
consideration of his application was impossible on account of 
an Act passed by Congress a few months previous and duly 
approved by the President, which provided that " chaplains 
must be regular ordained ministers of some Christian denomi- 
nation." 

This barrier to the appointment of a Chaplain gave rise to 
a widespread agitation in which many prominent men took 
part, including Lewis 1ST. Dembitz, of Louisville, who had 
voted for Lincoln in the Eepublican National Convention of 
1860; Alfred T. Jones, of Philadelphia; Joseph Abrahams, 
of Cincinnati ; Jacob Kantrowitz, of Columbus, Ind. ; Felix 
Deutsch, of Franklin, Ind.; E. Fleischmann, of Iowa City; 
Martin Bijur, of Louisville; S. Rosenthal, of Albany, N. Y., 
and Rev. B. H. Gotthelf, of Louisville. They demanded that 
the Act of Congress be made to conform with their plain con- 
stitutional rights, " those rights " they urged " for which the 
bones of many of our brethren in faith are now mouldering 
on the banks of the Potomac." The New York Journal of 
Commerce and Baltimore Clipper sided with the Jews. 

At this juncture the Board of Delegates of American Israel- 
ites took up the matter and through Senator Ira Harris and 
Representative Frederick Conkling, both of New York, peti- 
tioned Congress, protesting that the existing Act was " preju- 
dicial discrimination against a patriotic class of citizens on 
account of their religious belief" and demanding its repeal. 
At the same time they addressed the President urging the 
appointment of a Jewish Chaplain to each of the military 



9 



departments. This the President was unable to do, declaring 
his intention, however, to recommend Congress to modify the 
law as it stood. Dr. Fischel spent some time in Washington 
endeavoring to secure the repeal of the objectionable law. 

On December 11, 1861, he reported to the Board of Dele- 
gates the result of his efforts thus far. This is printed in the 
article, " A Jewish Army Chaplain," by Myer S. Isaacs, Pub- 
lications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 12, 
1904. 

On the following day Dr. Fischel again called at the White 
House in accordance with the President's invitation but failed 
to see him. On December 14, 1861, the President wrote to 
Dr. Fischel: 

Executive Mansion, December 14, 1861. 
Rev. Dr. A. Fischel. 

My deak Sib: I find that there are several particulars in which 
the present law in regard to Chaplains is supposed to be deficient, 
all of which I now design presenting to the appropriate Com- 
mittee of Congress. I shall try to have a new law broad enough 
to cover what is desired by you in behalf of the Israelites. 

Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

The proceedings which followed in Congress were without 
noteworthy incident. Mr. Trumbull of Illinois at the request 
of Rabbi Isidor Kalisch, of Indianapolis, presented a numer- 
ously signed petition in the Senate and J. Friedenreich, of 
Baltimore, secured 7000 signatures, mostly of Christians to 
another. Numerous members of the Legislature of Maryland 
also memorialized Congress urging a change in the existing 
law. Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia also addressed a letter to 
the President. Final action by Congress was deferred until 
March 12, 1862, when the Act was amended so as to authorize 
the employment of Brigade Chaplains, " one or more of which 
shall be of the Catholic, Protestant or Jewish religion." Mean- 
while Dr. Fischel conducted services for the Jewish Hospital 
in Virginia until April, 1862. Subsequently the President 



10 

appointed as Hospital Chaplains Rev. Jacob Frankel, of 
Philadelphia; Eev. B. H. Gotthelf, of Louisville, and Dr. 
Ferdinand Sarner of the 54th New York Infantry. Dr. 
Sabato Morais, of Philadelphia, had previously declined an 
appointment as Chaplain. 

Dr. Kalisch, in the third year of the war, aspired to a 
chaplaincy, his sponsor being Adolph Dessar, a prominent 
citizen of Indianapolis, and a close friend of John P. Usher, 
Secretary of the Interior in Lincoln's cabinet. Mr. Usher's 
efforts were unavailing as appears from the following letter: 

Depabtment of the Interior, 

Washington, October 16, 1863. 
Ad. Dessar, Esq. 

Dear Sir: I made inquiry of the President to-day respecting 
the appointment of Post Chaplain, and was advised by him that 
the public service did not at present require the appointment of 
any more; but that if occasion should happen requiring the ap- 
pointment of additional chaplains he should be happy to consider, 
with the many other applications, the claims of your friend, Rev. 
Mr. Isidore Kalisch. 

"Very truly yours, 

J. P. Usher. 

General Grant's Order No. Eleven. 

The edict of General Grant, known as Order No. 11, exclud- 
ing the Jews, as a class, from within the lines of his army, 
naturally aroused a storm of indignation. Grant's first mani- 
festo appeared at Lagrange, Tenn., on November 9, 1862, in 
the form of instructions to Gen. Hurlbut to refuse all permits 
to come south of Jackson, Tenn., adding " the Israelites espe- 
cially should be kept out." He next issued orders to Gen. 
Webster, referring to the Jews as " an intolerable nuisance." 
He also reported to the War Department that " the Jews roam 
through the country contrary to the government regulations." 
Finally on December 17 he issued a general order expelling 
all Jews as a class " from his Department within 21 hours." 

Cincinnati and Paducah became the storm centres of the 



11 



Jewish -uprisings mainly by reason of their proximity to 
Grant's field of operations, and the agitation eventually ex- 
tended to the halls of Congress. Rabbi Wise, in the Israelite, 
demanded the recall of the order on the ground that " the 
President had an oath registered in Heaven to enforce the 
laws," and he urged that justice should be demanded from the 
chief magistrate of the country. Capt. Ferdinand Levy, of 
Company H, Battalion New York Volunteers, wrote to The 
Jewish Messenger urging that the President compel General 
Grant to apologize or dismiss him from the service. 

While the Jews of Cincinnati, under the lead of Rabbi I. M. 
Wise were devising means to reach the President, their co- 
religionists at Paducah were equally active. After several con- 
ferences they transmitted the following appeal to the Presi- 
dent, the signers being among the leading merchants of the 
town. 

Paducah, Ky., Dec. 29, 1862. 
Eon. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. 

General Order No. 11 issued by General Grant at Oxford, Miss., 
December the 17th, commands all post commanders to expel all 
Jews without distinction within twenty-four hours from his 
entire Department. The undersigned good and loyal citizens of 
the United States and residents of this town, for many years 
engaged in legitimate business as merchants, feel greatly insulted 
and outraged by this inhuman order; the carrying out of which 
would be the grossest violation of the Constitution and our rights 
as good citizens under it, and would place us, besides a large 
number of other Jewish families of this town, as outlaws before 
the world. We respectfully ask your immediate attention to this 
enormous outrage on all law and humanity and pray for your 
effectual and immediate interposition. We would especially refer 
you to the post commander and post adjutant as to our loyalty, 
and to all respectable citizens of this community as to our stand- 
ing as citizens and merchants. We respectfully ask for immediate 
instructions to be sent to the Commander of this Post. 

D. Wolff & Bros. 

C. J. Kaskel. 

J. W. Kaskel. 



12 



It was determined to send a representative of the Jewish 
community to Washington to communicate with the President 
in person, and for that purpose Ceasar J. Kaskel, one of the 
signers of the appeal, a vice-president of the Paducah Union 
League Club and one of the most respected merchants of the 
town, was selected. 

Ceasar Kaskel was a native of Prussia. When Grant's Gen- 
eral Order No. 11 was issued he was in his thirtieth year. 
J. W. Kaskel, another signer of the appeal, was his brother. A 
record of the Paducah proceedings was preserved by the latter, 
now living at Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, N. Y., from which we 
learn that Ceasar Kaskel at once left Paducah by steamer for 
Cairo. While en route he prepared a full account of the affair 
which on reaching Cairo was furnished to the agent of the 
Associated Press, this being the first newspaper report given 
to the country. 

Kaskel, says the Israelite, took with him letters from Eabbi 
Max Lilienthal, and Daniel Wolf, a prominent Cincinnati 
merchant, to influential parties in Washington and arrived at 
the National Capital on the evening of January 3, 1863. Ac- 
companied by Representative Gurley of Ohio the two at once 
sought an audience with the President, reaching the White 
House at about dusk. Announcing their presence, with an 
apology for calling at such an hour, the President sent word 
that he was " always glad to see his friends," and shortly made 
his appearance. On learning the object of their visit he re- 
marked : 

And so the children of Israel were driven from the happy land 
of Canaan? 

Kaskel replied: 

Yes, and that is why we have come unto Father Abraham's 
bosom, asking protection. 

Lincoln responded: 
And this protection they shall have at once. 

Then seating himself at a table the President penned an 



13 



order to General Halleck requesting his visitors to deliver it at 
once. 

" You may leave for home at once if you wish/' said General 
Halleck to Kaskel on reading Lincoln's instructions, " and 
before you reach there Grant's order will have been revoked." 

Kaskel that same night started back to Paducah, and arriv- 
ing there was surprised to learn that the order of revocation 
had not yet been promulgated. 

" By whose orders do you return ? " demanded the Post 
Commander, on learning of Kaskel's presence in town. 

" By order of the President of the United States," replied 
Kaskel. 

Halleck's instructions to Grant, it appears, had been delayed 
in transmission and the latter's revocation was not issued until 
January 7, 1863. Two weeks later, January 21, Halleck wrote 
to Grant: 

The President has no objection to your expelling traitors and 
Jew peddlers which I suppose was the object of your order, but 
as it in terms proscribed an entire religious class, some of whom 
are fighting in our ranks, the President deems it necessary to 
revoke it. 

Dr. Wise is authority for the statement that Halleck would 
not believe in the existence of Grant's order until Kaskel 
showed him the official copy. 

Before the result of Kaskel's mission became known Rabbis 
Wise and Lilienthal, accompanied by Edgar M. Johnson, a 
lawyer of Cincinnati, Martin Bijur, a lawyer of Louisville, and 
Abraham Goldsmith, a merchant of Paducah, had gone to 
Washington. Learning of Kaskel's success on the way they 
determined nevertheless to complete the journey in order to 
express their thanks to the President for his prompt action. 
Eabbi Wise, in the Israelite, gave an interesting account of 
their interview. 

"We went to the "White House in our traveling habiliments and 
spoke about half an hour to the President of the United States in 
an open and frank manner and were dismissed in the same simple 



14 



style. Having expressed our thanks for his promptness and 
despatch in revoking Grant's order the President gave utterance 
to his surprise that such an order should have been issued. " I 
don't like to see a class or nationality condemned on account of a 
few sinners," he said. The President fully convinced us that he 
knows of no distinction between Jews and Gentiles and that he 
feels no prejudice against any nationality and especially against 
the Israelites. We had little chance to say anything, the President 
being so splendidly eloquent on this occasion. He spoke like a 
simple, plain citizen and tried in various forms to convince us 
of the sincerity of his words on this matter. 

Pending a settlement of the matter, Representative George 
H. Pendleton, of Ohio, who the following year figured as the 
running mate of George B. McClellan, Lincoln's rival for the 
Presidency, introduced a resolution in the House of Repre- 
sentatives condemning Grant's action " as well as that of the 
President as commander-in-chief of the Amy and Navy," 
which was laid on the table. Unmindful of the success of 
Kaskel's mission, Mr. Powell, of Kentucky, offered a resolution 
in the Senate on January 5, 1863, condemning Grant's order 
as "illegal, tyrannical, cruel and unjust;" but inasmuch as 
the order had been revoked, objection was raised to its con- 
sideration, and Senators Hale, of New Hampshire and Sum- 
ner, of Massachusetts urged that the resolution be tabled. 

Mr. Powell, according to the Congressional Globe, then ad- 
dressed the Senate. He had in his possession, he said, docu- 
ments that would go to establish the fact beyond the possi- 
bility of a doubt that some thirty Jewish gentlemen, residents 
of Paducah, were driven from their homes and their business 
by virtue of this order of General Grant. They had only the 
short notice of four and twenty hours. The Jewish women 
and children of the city were expelled under that order. Not 
a Jew, man, woman or child was left, except two women who 
were prostrate on beds of sickness. He added : 

If we tamely submit to allow the military power thus to 
encroach on the rights of the citizens who shall be setting a bad 
and most pernicious example to those in command of our Army. 



15 



He urged the passage of the resolution. It would be of the 
greatest importance particularly at that time when the con- 
stitutional rights of the citizens were being trodden under 
foot by the executive and military power. 

General Grant might just as well expel the Baptists or the 
Methodists or the Episcopalians or the Catholics as a class, as to 
expel the Jews. All are alike protected in the enjoyment of their 
religion by the Constitution of our country. They are inoffensive 
citizens and it was set forth in papers that he had before him that 
two of the Jews that were expelled had served three months in 
the Army of the United States in defence of the Union cause. 

It may be that some Jews in General Grant's department had 
been guilty of illegal traffic; if so, expel those who violate the law 
and punish them. 

Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, moved that the resolution 
be indefinitely postponed, believing that it would be unwise 
to condemn General Grant unheard. Mr. Anthony, of Kansas, 
suggested that a better disposition would be to refer it to the 
Committee on Military Affairs. 

Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, followed. He declared that 
no man in the Senate approved Grant's order, that as soon as 
it was called to the attention of the President of the United 
States it was promptly revoked, and there the matter ended. 
He agreed with Mr. Clark, that Grant should not be condemned 
unheard. He considered the order unwise, unjust and utterly 
indefensible; but the rights of these people having been 
promptly vindicated he hoped the matter would be dropped. 
Senator Hale then moved to lay Mr. Powell's resolution on the 
table and this was done by a vote of 30 to 7, thus disposing of 
further Congressional action. 

Two Cincinnati newspapers, the Enquirer and the Volks- 
freund, were outspoken in condemnation of Grant. The Phila- 
delphia Ledger opened its columns to persons who severely 
censured Grant, while the Inquirer of the same city declined 
to publish articles derogatory of the Federal Commander. 
John W. Forney, Secretary of the United States Senate, and 



16 



editor of the Washington Chronicle, defended General Grant, 
saying : 

If there was no good reason, there was at least some excuse for 
the promulgation of the order. 

The Occident commended the President's action: 
Fortunately he would not be the instrument of such a cruel 
order and the majority in Congress deserve the condemnation due 
them for disregard of their obligations as conservators of the 
rights of the people, which ought to be safe under the guarantees 
of the Constitution. 

The Board of Delegates of American Israelites adopted reso- 
lutions thanking Halleck for revoking Grant's order " in the 
name of the Hebrews of this country." Dr. Wise vehemently 
protested against this, describing the resolution as " a species 
of insanity," as " Halleck only carried out the order of the 
President who deserves thanks for his promptness in the 
affair." 

Did Grant issue his obnoxious edict of his own volition, or 
at the behest of higher authority? The Cincinnati Commer- 
cial, after the affair was over, published a communication inti- 
mating that Grant had acted on orders from Washington. 
The Israelite was of the opinion that such an order could have 
come only from Stanton or Chase, since the President and 
Halleck absolutely maintained that they knew nothing of it 
until seventeen days after it was issued. 

General Grant, in his Personal Memoirs, makes no reference 
to Order No. 11. An explanation of his silence may be found 
in the following letter dated Governor's Island, 1ST. Y., Decem- 
ber 8, 1907, and addressed to the writer. 

In reply to your letter of Nov. 23d I write to say that when my 
father was writing his memoirs I asked if he would refer to the 
order No. 11 — about which you enquire in your letter, and he 
replied that that was a matter long past and best not referred to; 
therefore, I shall, following his example, have nothing to say 
about that order. 

Yours very sincerely, 

Frederick D. Grant. 



17 



Nicolay and Hay dismiss the subject in these few words : 
Lincoln had a profound respect for every form of sincere 
religious belief. He steadily refused to show favor to any par- 
ticular denomination of Christians, and when General Grant issued 
an unjust and injurious order against the Jews expelling them 
from his Department, the President ordered it to be revoked the 
moment it was brought to his notice. 

As further bearing upon Ceasar Kaskel's activity in this 
matter it may be stated that the Washington press despatches 
gave him full credit for the repeal of the order. He died in 
Wiesbaden, Germany, March 30, 1892. 

Lincoln's Jewish Friends. 

The name of Abraham Jonas, a leading lawyer, politician, 
and public speaker of Illinois, is indissolubly associated with 
that of Abraham Lincoln, the two having enjoyed very inti- 
mate relations, dating, it is believed, from about the birth of 
the Whig party in 1834 and continuing up to the death of 
Jonas in 1864. 

Of the antecedents of Abraham Jonas, we learn that he 
was one of twenty- two children of Annie Ezekiel and Benja- 
min Jonas, of Exeter, England, where he was born in 1801. 
He arrived in Cincinnati, in 1819, two years after his brother 
Joseph, the first Jew to settle in that city, and engaged in 
the auction business with his brother-in-law, Morris Moses. 
He was twice married, his first wife being Lucia Orah, daugh- 
ter of Eev. Gershom Mendes Seixas, of New York, who died 
in 1825. In 1829 he married Louisa Block, of Virginia. He 
was one of the incorporators of the first synagogue in Cincin- 
nati, in 1829, and his name appears in a conveyance recorded 
in 1821, as one of the purchasers of a small plot of ground 
for a Jewish cemetery from Nicholas Longworth, great-grand- 
father of the present Ohio Congressman of that name, the son- 
in-law of President Theodore Eoosevelt. 

Jonas moved to Williamstown, Grant County, Ky., before 
his marriage to Miss Block, and served in the State legisla- 
2 



18 



ture of Kentucky in 1828, 1829, 1830, and 1833. He was 
elected Grand Master of Masons of Kentucky in August, 1833, 
and his portrait as such adorns the walls of the Grand Lodge 
room in Louisville. He settled in Illinois in 1838 and was 
elected to the legislature in 1842. He became the first Grand 
Master of Masons of that State in 1839. A tablet in his 
honor was placed in the hall of the Grand Lodge of Illinois 
on the announcement of his death in 1864 and the Grand 
Lodge at their semi-centennial in 1889 had a bronze medal 
struck which bears his name. 

Jonas, with Lincoln, was chosen by the Illinois State Con- 
vention held at Bloomington on May 29, 1856, a Presidential 
elector on the Fremont ticket. He was engaged in mercantile 
pursuits up to the year 1843. Meanwhile he had studied law 
and was admitted in that year to the bar in Quincy where he 
continued to practice with success up to his death in 1864, 
being associated with Henry Asbury. William A. Eichardson, 
of Quincy, avers that Lincoln, when in that city did much of 
his work in the office of Jonas & Asbury. The Quincy Whig, 
of October 7, 1858, prints a notice signed by Jonas, as chair- 
man of the Eepublican committee of arrangements, addressed 
to the friends of Abraham Lincoln requesting their presence 
at the debate of Lincoln and Douglas, on October 13, in that 
city. (See Collections Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 
III.) The Hon. William H. Collins, of Quincy, a prominent 
member of the State Historical Society of Illinois, is authority 
for the statement that Jonas was " an influential leader in the 
Eepublican party and likewise a personal friend of Lincoln." 
The Grand Secretary of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Kentucky 
also testified to his prominence " in all the positions he occu- 
pied." 

With the exception of Nicolay and Hay none of the numer- 
ous biographers of Lincoln makes mention of Jonas either in 
connection with Lincoln or his prominence in Illinois politics. 
These writers give us an interesting letter addressed by Lin- 



19 



coin to Jonas after the former's nomination for President in 
1860 when the opponents of the Republican nominee were 
assiduous in reviving accusations of his affiliation with the 
Know-Nothing party, notwithstanding his repeated statements 
to the contrary. In this emergency Lincoln turned to his 
friend Jonas, to whom he addressed the following letter which 
fully evidences the confidential relations of the two and ex- 
plains the former's attitude on the Know-Nothing question: 

Confidential July 21> lg60 

Hon. A. Jonas, 

My dear Sib: Yours of the 2nd is received. I suppose as good 
or e\en better men than I may have been in American or Know- 
Nothing lodges; but in point of fact I never was in one in Quincy 
or elsewhere. I was never in Quincy but one day and two nights 
while Know-Nothing lodges were in existence and you were with 
me that day and both those nights. I have never been there 
before in my life and never afterwards, till the joint debate with 
Douglas in 1858. It was in 1854 when I spoke in some hall there, 
and after the speaking, you with others took me to an oyster 
saloon, passed an hour there, and you walked with me to, and 
parted with me at the Quincy House quite late at night. I left 
by stage for Naples before daylight in the morning, having come 
in by the same route after dark the evening previous to the 
speaking, when I found you waiting at the Quincy House to meet 
me. A few days after I was there, Richardson, as I understand, 
started this same story about my having been in a Know-Nothing 
lodge. When I heard of the charge, as I did soon after, I taxed 
my recollection for some incident which could have suggested it; 
and I remember that on parting with you the last night I went 
to the office of the hotel to take my stage passage for the morning 
and was told that no stage office for that line was kept there and 
that I must see the driver before retiring, to insure his calling 
for me in the morning; and a servant was sent with me to find 
the driver, who after taking me a square or two, stopped me and 
stepped perhaps a dozen steps farther, and in my hearing called 
to some one, who answered him, apparently from the upper part 
of a building, and promised to call with the stage for me at the 
Quincy House. I returned and went to bed, and before day the 
stage called and took me. This is all. That I never was in a 



20 



Know-Nothing lodge in Quincy I should expect could be easily 
proved by respectable men who were always in the lodges and 
never saw me there. An affidavit of one or two such should put 
the matter at rest. And now a word of caution. Our adversaries 
think they can gain a point if they force me to openly deny the 
charge, by which some degree of offence would be given to the 
" Americans." For this reason it must not publicly appear that 
I am paying any attention to the charge. 

Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

From 1849 to 1852 Jonas served as postmaster at Quincy 
by appointment of Presidents Taylor and Fillmore. One of 
Lincoln's earliest appointments was that of his friend Jonas 
to his former office, his commission being dated April 29, 1861. 
He discharged the duties of postmaster until the spring of 
1864 when he was incapacitated by serious illness. Martin 
Joseph, then, as now, a resident of Quincy, informs the writer 
that he visited Jonas frequently during his illness, being per- 
sonally acquainted with him, and " when the doctors had no 
hope for his recovery, of which he was aware, his only wish was 
to see his son Charles H., at that time a prisoner of war, a 
member of the Twelfth Arkansas Eegiment of the Confed- 
erate Army. The friends telegraphed to Lincoln to grant 
him the privilege to go to his dying father and the President 
being a great friend of Mr. Jonas granted the release and 
sent word the son was on the way." 

This statement of Mr. Joseph varies but slightly from that 
of Charles H. Jonas, still living in his 77th year. In a letter 
to the writer dated July 14, 1908, he says : 

When during my father's last illness and hope of his recovery 
had been abandoned, my mother and sister asked Mr. Lincoln to 
permit me to see him before his death. I was at that time a 
prisoner of war on Johnson's Island, Lake Erie. President Lin- 
coln granted the request without hesitation, and issued an order 
to the Commandant at the prison to liberate me on parole to 
visit my dying father. This was done at once and I reached 
Quincy on the day of my father's death, but in time to be recog- 
nized and welcomed by him. 



21 



From the records of the War Department we are enabled to 
reproduce the President's order above referred to, the same 
being also quoted by Leslie J. Perry in an article " Appeals to 
Lincoln's Clemency," in the Century Magazine, December, 
1895 : 

Allow Charles H. Jonas now a prisoner of war at Johnson's 
island a parole of three weeks to visit his dying father, Abraham 
Jonas, at Quincy, Ills. 
■ June 2nd 1864. A. Lincoln. 

In connection with this incident it should be said that three 
other sons of Jonas served in the Confederate army — Benja- 
min F., in later years United States Senator from Louisiana ; 
Julian, and Samuel Alroy, the latter being known as the 
author of the poem " Written on the Back of a Confederate 
Note." A fifth son, Edward, served with distinction as 
Major of an Illinois regiment. Lincoln's postmaster at 
Quincy suffered in no wise by the Southern sympathies of his 
four sons; in fact we have it from Benjamin F. Jonas that 
" Mr. Lincoln always asked after us when he saw any one 
from New Orleans during the war." 

Further evidence of Lincoln's high opinion of Jonas exists 
in the shape of an order of the President in the matter of one 
Thomas Thoroughman of St. Joseph, Mo., arrested for dis- 
loyalty in May, 1862, and sent to Quincy, 111. Appeal being 
made to Lincoln he directed the Secretary of War " to dispose 
of the case at the discretion of Abraham Jonas and Henry 
Asbury, both of Quincy, both of whom I know to be loyal and 
sensible men." Their report resulted in Thoroughman's 
parole. This case is also quoted by Leslie J. Perry in the 
Century Magazine, December, 1895. Asbury in 1869 pub- 
lished in the Quincy Whig a series of sketches of the bench 
and bar of Adams County including that of Jonas, to which 
he refers in his volume Reminiscences of Quincy, published 
in 1882. 

On the death of Jonas the President appointed his widow 



22 



Louisa Block Jonas to fill his unexpired term as postmaster, 
the office being meanwhile managed by her daughter Anna 
Jonas who became the wife of Adolph Meyer, for twenty years 
Congressman from Louisiana. 

Of Jonas' personality we learn from his niece Mrs. Annie 
J. Moses, of New York. She writes : 

He was tall, of medium weight, rather inclined to leanness 
than flesh, with black eyes and hair and complexion between 
dark and fair. His features were very strong, with a serious, 
intelligent face, which broke into a very pleasant expression 
when amused. He was a very intellectual man and full of 
humor and wit; and benevolence was well marked in his 
countenance. 

Of the few Jewish residents of Springfield for several years 
preceding Lincoln's election to the Presidency, Julius Ham- 
merslough, of the firm of Hammerslough Brothers, enjoyed 
very friendly relations with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. He heard 
Lincoln's memorable address in Springfield on June 17, 1858, 
beginning with the words, " If we could first know where we 
are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to 
do and how to do it." Mr. Hammerslough witnessed Lincoln's 
first inauguration and frequently called to see him at the 
White House, the President invariably inquiring of Mr. 
Hammerslough : " How are the boys ? " — referring to the 
brothers in Springfield. One one occasion he escorted Mrs. 
Ninian Edwards, a sister of Mrs. Lincoln, from Springfield 
to Washington. He accompanied Lincoln's remains from 
Chicago to Springfield as one of a committee of citizens of 
Lincoln's old home chosen for that purpose, and he also pro- 
vided the plumes for the funeral car used in Springfield. 
Hammerslough took a very active part in the project for the 
erection of the Lincoln monument in Springfield, being ap- 
pointed by the national monument committee special agent 
to bring the subject to the notice of the Jews. In a stirring 
appeal for funds dated Springfield, May 30, 1865, he wrote: 



23 



It is above all, fitting in this land where the Hebrews have won 
so proud a name and are so greatly respected and honored that 
they should thus show their love and veneration for the fallen 
chief of the nation, whose wisdom, honesty and purity of pur- 
pose were so highly appreciated by foreign nations and who was 
so beloved at home. 

Shortly before his death Mr. Hammerslough called the 
writer's attention to an old and familiar Lincoln story the 
authenticity of which has long been questioned. Returning 
to Springfield after several weeks' absence with saddle bags 
on his arms, Lincoln noticed on nearing his home that an 
additional story had been added since he left — the work of 
Mrs. Lincoln and intended as a surprise. Feigning inability 
to recognize the house he inquired of a passer-by, " Say, Mister, 
can you tell me where the widow Lincoln lives ? " The party 
thus addressed was Abner Wilkinson, a well-known merchant 
tailor of Springfield, from whose lips Hammerslough heard 
the story some years afterwards. This statement of Wilkinson 
to Hammerslough is interesting, in that it settles the character 
of at least one of the many Lincoln stories heretofore in the 
apocryphal class. 

In the late 'sixties Mr. Hammerslough moved to New York 
where he became the founder and first President of the 
Clothiers Association of New York. On his death, June 18, 
1908, the directors of that association formally gave expres- 
sion to the debt of gratitude due him for the uplifting of the 
clothing industry. The daily newspapers also noted his inti- 
mate acquaintance with Lincoln. 

There resided in Jacksonville, 111., from 1853 to 1861 
Henry Eice a merchant born in Germany in 1834 and now a 
resident of New York. Eice knew Lincoln well. Eeferring 
to his acquaintance he told the writer of a visit to Springfield 
when he met Lincoln bound for the railroad station in quest 
of Mrs. Lincoln who had been away on a shopping trip " to 
get some duds" as he put it. Eice told Lincoln it was his 



24 



intention, if he would permit it, to furnish his inauguration 
suit. He thanked Eice, saying he had already accepted a 
similar offer from the Springfield firm of Wood and Hinkle. 
Eice had been acting for several months after the breaking out 
of the war as military store-keeper at Cairo, 111., and sought 
a similar appointment embracing the entire district, being 
backed by John A. Logan and Governor Eichard Yates of 
Illinois. Accompanied by these gentlemen Eice called upon 
Lincoln at the White House. He found the President at 
supper and at his invitation the three joined in the repast. 
Lincoln favored Eice's appointment and endorsed his applica- 
tion to Simon Cameron, Secretary of War. It turned out 
however, that Cameron had already filled the office. Lincoln, 
when informed of this, suggested a method by which Eice 
might yet secure the appointment but the latter allowed the 
matter to drop. 

A characteristic instance of Lincoln's probity is narrated by 
Mr. Eice, who was a party to the proceeding. Several Cin- 
cinnati firms, on learning of the failure of a Decatur, 111., 
debtor for a large sum, wrote to Eice at Jacksonville request- 
ing that he recommend a reputable lawyer to protect their 
interests. Eice suggested Abraham Lincoln of Springfield. 
Thereupon a committee representing the creditors met Eice 
at Springfield and the party called upon Lincoln. Much to 
their chagrin they were told he did not feel satisfied he could 
properly attend to the matter. He advised them, however, to 
consult his fellow-townsman and most bitter political op- 
ponent, John A. McClernand, also a lawyer of note, who was 
later a Major-General in the Union Army. Indisposed to 
accept a retainer McClernand suggested that the party again 
see Lincoln, assuring them of his thorough qualification for 
the work in hand. This flattering endorsement induced Lin- 
coln to yield, the result being a speedy and mutually satis- 
factory adjustment of the matter at issue. 



25 

It was during the Presidential campaign of 1860 that 
Abraham Kohn, City Clerk of Chicago, first met Lincoln, the 
acquaintance being formed in the store of Kohn, at that time 
a merchant. Kohn was a Bavarian, then in his 42d year, a 
man of excellent education, well versed in Hebrew literature 
and known and respected as a public-spirited citizen. He had 
been for several years President of the Hebrew Congregation 
Anshe Maariv (Men of the West). In politics Kohn was 
described by the Democratic press as "one of the blackest 
Eepublicans and Abolitionists." Kohn's popularity and in- 
fluence had probably been brought to Lincoln's attention, and 
the latter, consummate politician as he was, recognized in 
Kohn, presumably, an ally whose acquaintance would prove 
a valuable asset in the pending election. Lincoln was intro- 
duced by Congressman Isaac N. Arnold who accompanied him 
and it was this meeting that inspired Kohn with a feeling of 
admiration for his visitor and a conviction that he was the 
destined Moses of the slaves and the saviour of his country. 
Thus says his daughter, Mrs. D. K. Adler, in a letter to the 
writer. Lincoln in the course of the conversation spoke of 
the Bible as their book and Kohn, being a devout Jew as well 
as an ardent patriot, conceived an intense admiration for 
Lincoln. This found expression in his sending to the Presi- 
dent-elect before his departure for Washington a silk flag, the 
work of his own hands, painted in colors, its folds bearing 
Hebrew characters exquisitely lettered in black with the third 
to ninth verses of the first chapter of Joshua, the last verse 
being : 

Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; 
be not afraid neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is 
with thee whithersoever thou goest. 

This flag is referred to by Admiral George H. Preble in his 
History of the Flag of the United States, published in 1894. 
The incident being brought to the attention of the late Presi- 
dent McKinley, when Governor of Ohio, he thus alluded to it 



26 



in the course of a speech delivered at Ottawa, Kansas, on June 
20, 1895: 

What more beautiful conception than that which Abraham 
Kohn of Chicago in February, 1861, to send to Mr. Lincoln, on the 
eve of his starting to Washington, to assume the office of Presi- 
dent, a flag of our country, bearing upon its silken folds the 
words from the first chapter of Joshua. Could anything have 
given Mr. Lincoln more cheer or been better calculated to sustain 
his courage or to strengthen his faith in the mighty work before 
him? Thus commanded, thus assured, Mr. Lincoln journeyed to 
the Capital, where he took the oath of office and registered in 
Heaven an oath to save the Union. And the Lord our God was 
with him, until every obligation of oath and duty was sacredly 
kept and honored. Not any man was able to stand before him. 
Liberty was the more firmly enthroned, the Union was saved, and 
the flag which he carried floated in triumph and glory from every 
flagstaff of the Republic. 

Mr. Lincoln at once wrote to Mr. Kohn thanking him for 
his gift. His letter was sent through a mutual friend, John 
Young Scammon, a prominent citizen of Chicago, who de- 
layed its delivery until six months after Lincoln's departure 
from Springfield, when he wrote to Mr. Kohn as follows : 

Chicago, August 28, 1861. 
Abraham Kohn, Esq. 

My dear Sib: The enclosed acknowledgment of the receipt of 
your beautiful painting of the American flag by the President got 
among my letters or it would have been sent to you before. 
Regretting the delay, I am, 

Truly your friend, 

J. Young Scammon. 

Mr. Lincoln's letter to Kohn being lost cannot be repro- 
duced. The whereabouts of the flag cannot be traced, al- 
though Mrs. Adler states that while in Washington during 
the administration of President McKinley she made a thor- 
ough search for the relic in all the places where it might be 
preserved but without success. Kohn never met Lincoln after 
his visit to his store in Chicago. He was one of the citizens 
appointed by the Mayor to go some distance into Indiana to 



27 

meet the train bearing Lincoln's body to that city. He died 
in Chicago in 1871. 

Henry Greenebaum, for many years a banker of Chicago, 
was an intimate friend of Lincoln and numbered also among 
his friends Generals U. S. Grant, John A. Logan, James A. 
Garfield, and Stephen A. Douglas. Born in Hesse-Darm- 
stadt, Germany, in 1833, he reached Chicago in 1849 and in 
1855 was elected an Alderman on the Democratic ticket in 
recognition of his political activity and influence with the 
voters of that party. John Wentworth, " Long John," being 
Mayor of Chicago at the time, he invited the Aldermen to a 
dinner at the Tremont House, Lincoln, a personal friend of 
Wentworth, being a guest. Of this and subsequent visits Mr. 
Greenebaum gave the writer the following account : 

On the occasion of the dinner at the Tremont House I met Lin- 
coln for the first time and was greatly impressed by his con- 
geniality, by his -wealth of humor, and by his remarkable mental 
endowment. I formed the brightest appreciation of his person- 
ality, and whenever he came to Chicago subsequent to that time, 
I called on him at the Tremont House to pay my respects. On 
one of these occasions, during his contest with Stephen A. 
Douglas, for the United States Senatorship, I accompanied Lincoln 
on a walk during which he asked me for my support. My reply 
was that I could not do so, that I was a strong political friend 
of Douglas. Lincoln said he knew this and that he was not in 
real earnest in asking my support. 

Greenebaum was called to Springfield in the month of 
February, 1861, to attend a hearing before a committee of 
the State legislature. The night before Lincoln left Spring- 
field, Greenebaum and a large party of legislators and others 
went to Lincoln's home to bid him good-bye and the Presi- 
dent-elect asked all present to come to the depot in the 
morning to see him off. To quote Mr. Greenebaum: 

A large crowd gathered and the dear man made a very solemn 
and impressive speech — indeed he moved us to tears. With 
wonderful modesty he expressed his fear of being unable to meet 
the grave responsibility that awaited him at the White House. 



28 



His faith in God gave him courage, he said, and he asked us to 
pray for him. Taken all in all I consider him the greatest man 
I ever met. He was a man of very broad views, had no preju- 
dices whatever against any nationalities or classes and many of 
the most prominent Jews of Illinois supported him for the 
Presidency. 

By reason of his residence and prominence in the city of 
Washington Adolphus S. Solomons had frequent intercouse 
with Lincoln. He was a member of the book and publishing 
firm of Philip and Solomons which for many years was given 
the government contracts for printing. Mr. Solomons has 
taken an active part in the inauguration ceremonies of every 
President from Lincoln to Eoosevelt, is still living in the Na- 
tional Capital in his eighty-second year, and is full of reminis- 
cences of Lincoln. At the Lincoln birthday celebration given 
under the auspices of the Hebrew Educational Society of 
Brooklyn in 1903 he said : 

To me, whose good fortune it was to know Mr. Lincoln when 
he first came to Washington, and to know him was to love him, 
it would come with natural impulse to glow over the make up of 
his remarkable career. All of his inclinations were on the sunny 
side of life and the beauty spots seen through his hopeful eyes 
covered many freckles upon the human face divine and made him 
think well of all his fellow men. 

On the same occasion Mr. Solomons related the following 
reminiscences : 

One day while I was in the White House waiting to see the 
President I found myself in line with fifty others and had to 
wait my turn. Right in front of me was a tall, stupid-appearing 
fellow, and I wondered what in the world his mission was. The 
man said to the President, " I see that you are rather busy today, 
and I will come in some other time to tell you what a contraband 
told me"; whereupon the President interrupted him by a slap 
on the shoulder and with a steady look at his muddy clothing and 
boots, and looking at his shaggy red hair exclaimed: 

" Excepting myself you are the homeliest man I ever set eyes 
on. But that makes no difference: sit right down and tell me all 



29 



you know." As he said this Lincoln winked at me over the 
stranger's shoulder, and added, " And it certainly cannot take 
you long." Evidently the man did not see the joke, for he told 
a short story and was soon out of the room. 

On another occasion, when I was present, a Mr. Addison, a 
Federal officer from Baltimore, called upon Lincoln to tender his 
resignation, whereupon Lincoln said: " All right, Addison, I 
accept your resignation but nothing can compensate me for the 
loss of you, for when you retire I will be the ugliest man left in 
the employ of the Government " — again emphasizing that he 
thought himself no beauty. 

The day that Lincoln issued one of his early war proclamations 
I chanced to be at the White House with a distinguished New 
York Rabbi, Dr. Morris J. Raphall, who came to Washington to 
ask for the promotion of his son Alfred, from a second to a first 
lieutenancy in the army. The White House was closed for the 
day when we got there, but upon sending up my card we gained 
admittance and after Lincoln had heard the Rabbi's request he 
blurted out, " As God's minister is it not your first duty to be at 
home today to pray with your people for the success of our arms, 
as is being done in every loyal church throughout the North, 
East and West? " The Rabbi, evidently ashamed at his faux pas, 
blushing made answer: "My assistant is doing that duty." 
" Ah," said Lincoln, " that is different." The President then 
drew forth a small card and wrote the following upon it: 

" The Secretary of war will promote Second Lieutenant Raphall 
to a First Lieutenantcy. 

A. Lincoln." 

Handing the card to the Rabbi he said, with a smile all his 
own: " Now doctor, you can go home and do your own praying." 

Referring to this interview, in an address on Lincoln at 
his synagogue B'nai Jeshurun, New York, April 19, 1865, Dr. 
Raphall said that he had seen the President but once, he had 
asked him but one favor, but that time he granted it freely, 
he had granted it lovingly " because he knew the speaker was 
a Jew — because he knew him to be a true servant of the 
Lord." 

The last photograph of President Lincoln, taken shortly 
before his assassination, was made in the gallery attached 
to the Philip and Solomons' establishment in Washing- 



30 



ton. After Mr. Solomons retired from the business the plates 
and negatives of the firm passed to Alexander Gardner who 
was in charge of the portraiture branch and subsequently a 
partner in the concern. In the American Hebrew of February 
12, 1909, Mr. Solomons gives the following account of Mr. 
Lincoln's sitting for this picture : 

As many statements have been made relating to the " last photo- 
graph " Mr. Lincoln sat for, I feel assured that the following dis- 
poses of the fact: 

During the early 60's our bookselling and publishing firm of 
Philip & Solomons, located at 911 Pennsylvania avenue in this 
city, had a large photograph branch in the upper part of the build- 
ing, under the charge of Alexander Gardner who was well known 
for his celebrated " Photographic Sketch Book of the War " in 
two oblong folio volumes, in which Mr. Lincoln was a frequent 
and conspicuous figure in camp and battle fields. 

One day while in his office I casually remarked that I would 
like very much for him to give us another sitting as those we had 
been favored with were unsatisfactory to us, and would he permit 
us to try again, to which he willingly assented. 

Not long afterwards he sent word that he could " come on some 
Sunday," and a date was arranged, which was the second Sunday 
previous to the Friday night when the assassin, Wilkes Booth, in 
cold blood shot to death one of the most beloved men God ever 
created. 

At the time named by appointment, he came and at my first 
glance I saw, with regret, that he wore a troubled expression, 
which, however, was not unusual at that eventful period of our 
country's fitful condition, and throwing aside on a chair the gray 
woolen shawl he was accustomed to wear, Mr. Gardner, after sev- 
eral squints at his general make-up, placed him in an artistic 
position and began his work. 

After several " snaps," during which the President while mak- 
ing jocular remarks, had completely upset the operator's calcula- 
tions, I followed Mr. Gardner into his " dark room " and learned 
to my sorrow that he had not succeeded in getting even a fair ex- 
pression of his mobile countenance, and therefore was much 
discouraged, which, however, was but a repetition of former 
occasions. 

I courageously named the result of my investigation to Mr. 
Lincoln, whereupon he, noticing, perhaps, my disappointment, 



31 



said to me, " tell Mr. Gardner to come out in the open " — referring 
to the " dark room," — " and you, Solomons tell me one of your 
funny stories and we will see if I can't do better." 

I complied as best I could, and the result was the likeness as 
reproduced. 

This portrait is identical with the one published by the 
Sprague & Hathaway Co., of West Somerville, Mass., which 
they informed the writer was made by them from an old- 
fashioned wet plate owned by Watson Porter, photographer to 
the Army of the Potomac, by whom it was sold to Henry M. 
Williams, a lawyer and capitalist at Fort Wayne, Indiana, 
whose father was a personal friend of Lincoln. By what means 
Porter came into the possession of this negative is not known. 

Joseph Seligman, formerly of the New York banking firm 
of J. and W. Seligman & Co., had close relations with Presi- 
dent Lincoln, by whom he was called to Washington for con- 
sultation with himself and Secretary Chase, on matters of 
finance. Many of the issues of government bonds were placed 
by the Seligmans in Frankfort and Amsterdam. This action, 
at a time when the nation's credit was low and its fate un- 
certain, elicited frequent expressions of commendation from 
the President. The appointment of General Grant to the su- 
preme command of the army was in a large measure due to 
Joseph Seligman's influence with Lincoln, as he had known 
Grant before the war and recognized his fitness for the duties. 
Mr. Seligman entertained a strong affection for the President, 
which was fully reciprocated. He was in Frankfort at the time 
of Lincoln's assassination and his grief in learning the news 
was poignant. Eeferring to that event in later years he often 
declared to his children that not only had a noble man fallen 
by the hand of an assassin but also that the South had lost its 
best friend. Mr. Seligman was with others, instrumental in 
aiding Mrs. Lincoln after the death of her husband, whereby 
her wants were much alleviated. To his son, Mr. Isaac N. 
Seligman, of New York, we are indebted for the foregoing 
details. 



32 



Presidential Electors and Delegates. 

Two electoral votes were cast for Lincoln by Jews, one in 
the election of 1860, another in that of 1864. Two Jews 
served as delegates in the Republican National Convention of 
1860 and one in that of 1864. 

Sigisnrand Kaufmann, a member of the bar and a native 
of Darmstadt, Germany, was a Republican Presidential elector 
for the State of New York in 1860. He had taken part in 
the German revolution of 1848-49, was a man of brilliant 
parts and was at this period in his thirty-fifth year. Kauf- 
mann was the representative of the German Republican ele- 
ment in the United States. He wrote for the Staats-Z eitung , 
founded the New York Turn Verein, and the Legal Aid 
Society, was President of the German Society of the City of 
New York, a commissioner of immigration, and a director of 
the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. At the age of twenty-seven he 
addressed anti-slavery meetings in the city of New York, 
speaking one evening in English, German, and French. With 
his fellow-members of the Electoral College he went to the 
Astor House to see Mr. Lincoln on his arrival in New York 
in February, 1861. On being presented Lincoln remarked, 
" I know enough German to know that Kauf mann means 
merchant." Then he added, as if to emphasize his linguistic 
accomplishments, " And Schneider means tailor — am I not 
a good German scholar? " (See New York Tribune, February 
21, 1861.) 

The President shortly after his inauguration offered Kauf- 
mann the post of Minister to Italy. He declined it on the 
ground that he could be more useful to his party at home. 
Kaufmann was an important factor in the distribution of 
Federal patronage in the State of New York and wielded 
much influence with the Lincoln administration. He secured 
for Franz Sigel an appointment as Colonel of a Missouri regi- 
ment on the outbreak of the Civil War in response to an 
urgent appeal from Sigel then at St. Louis asking "What 



33 



shall I do ? " to which Kauf mann replied, " Organize a regi- 
ment. I will attend to the rest." Mr. Kaufmann in 1870 
was an unsuccessful candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of the 
State of New York, Stewart L. Woodford being the nominee 
for Governor. 

The emancipation proclamation Kaufmann regarded as the 
transcendant act of Lincoln's administration. In the course 
of an address to the German Republicans in 1879 in opposi- 
tion to a third term for President Grant he declared : 

The proclamation of Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves was 
the greatest victory for the Federal cause of the War. It shed no 
drop of blood, it cost no treasure. Where graves are the monu- 
ments of Grant's victories, millions of free men are the trophies 
Lincoln won. 

Kaufmann died in Berlin in 1889, aged 65 years. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1864, Abram J. Ditten- 
hoefer was a Presidential elector for the State of New York 
on the Republican ticket. He was born in South Carolina in 
1836 and is a lawyer by profession. 

Mr. Dittenhoefer heard Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech 
in 1859 and was then introduced to him. He did not become 
intimate with him, however, until after the Presidential elec- 
tion of 1864. Thereafter he called upon the President a 
number of times at the White House. The President seemed 
pleased to see his visitor and spent quite a time in conver- 
sation, generally about New York politics. Of these inter- 
views Mr. Dittenhoefer, in a communication to the writer, 
said: 

While an air of melancholy seemed always to suffuse his feat- 
ures, I always regarded President Lincoln as the most genial 
of men. I often found him sitting in the business office of the 
White House having on a black, threadbare, alpaca coat, out at 
the elbows and in slippers. I could always notice when he was 
about to indulge in a jest, which he frequently did in the midst 
of the most serious conversation; a sort of half suppressed smile 
would appear on that strong face for a brief interval before the 

3 



34 



jest was given, as if he was anticipating the pleasure it would 
give in the hearing of it. I remember distinctly presenting to 
him the ballot I had cast as one of the Presidential electors for 
him in the New York college of electors. Looking at it a few 
minutes, he said, " It represents the power and dignity of the 
American people and the grandeur of American institutions." 
In thanking me for giving it to him he said he would leave it to 
his children as a memento. I saw him in Washington a few days 
before his death. He seemed then to be in the best of spirits 
and spoke of the great work that was before him in completing 
the restoration of harmony and peace between the North and 
the South. 

The friends of Dittenhoefer early during the war, knowing 
that he was a South Carolinian, filed an application for his 
appointment as United States Judge of that State. Nothing, 
he says, was heard of the matter for a year or two, when a 
Mrs. Carson, a daughter of the only Union man in South 
Carolina, who had been driven from the State for his loyalty, 
wrote to him that she had been directed by Lincoln to examine 
the applications on file and make her recommendation to him. 
This she did and seeing Dittenhoefer's name among the appli- 
cants recommended his appointment, which the President 
promised to make. Shortly thereafter Dittenhoefer received 
a letter from one of Lincoln's private secretaries saying that 
the President was going to nominate him for that judgeship, 
but his business having meanwhile increased and being unwill- 
ing to take up his residence in the South he at once replied 
that he could not accept the nomination. 

Mr. Dittenhoefer was in later life appointed a justice of the 
City Court of New York. He was a delegate to several 
Kepublican National Conventions and acted for twelve years 
as chairman of the Republican Central Committee of New 
York City where he now resides. For further details about 
him and Lincoln see New York Herald, November 22, 1908. 

In the Republican State Convention held at St. Louis on 
February 12, 1860, Moritz Pinner, one of its members, was 
elected a delegate to the National Republican Convention to 



35 



be held in Chicago the following May. Pinner was a young 
German of thirty- two engaged in the publication of a Ger- 
man newspaper devoted to the anti-slavery cause. The St. 
Louis Republican of February 13, 1860, gives a detailed ac- 
count of the proceedings of this State Convention in which 
Pinner seems to have been very prominent, being especially 
active in his efforts to defeat the endorsement of Edward 
Bates of Missouri for the Presidency. The friends of Bates, 
constituting a majority in the Missouri Convention, having 
introduced a resolution instructing the national delegates to 
vote as a unit for the Presidential nominee, Pinner announced 
his resignation as a delegate to Chicago, the convention imme- 
diately adjourning without taking action thereon, thus leav- 
ing him free to attend the National Convention where he 
further devoted his attention to the prevention of Bates' en- 
dorsement by the Illinois delegation. This being accom- 
plished he took no further part in the deliberations of the 
convention and kept aloof from the Missouri delegation, whose 
leaders Frank P. Blair and B. Gratz Brown he had antagon- 
ized in their efforts to secure the nomination of Bates. The 
consequence was that he failed to record his vote on either of 
the three ballots which resulted in the choice of Lincoln. 

Pinner's name does not appear on the official roll of Mis- 
souri delegates to the convention. This omission he explains 
to the writer as " spite work " of Gratz Brown for his anti- 
Bates activity. Pinner favored the nomination of William 
H. Seward, but now in the light of history is extremely 
thankful that Lincoln was nominated and elected. While he 
made no effort to secure Lincoln's nomination he worked 
earnestly for his election and believes that " by preventing the 
nomination of Bates he paved the way for Lincoln and made 
his nomination possible and his election probable." 

Pinner informs the writer that he became acquainted with 
Lincoln in Chicago during the Presidential campaign of 1856 
and saw him quite often during the Lincoln-Douglas debates 
in 1858. After Lincoln's nomination he met him in Spring- 



36 



field and was there introduced to Mrs. Lincoln with whom he 
had a pleasant chat. He frequently saw the President after 
his election and was by him offered the mission to Honduras 
which he declined, preferring to enter the army. Appointed 
by General Philip Kearney Brigade Quartermaster on his 
staff, Secretary Stanton resented Kearney's action, claiming 
the sole right of such appointments. An appeal to Lincoln 
followed. The latter's intervention, Pinner says, secured a 
prompt adjustment of the controversy but not before its con- 
sideration by a full cabinet meeting called for that purpose. 
Pinner's commission followed at once. This document, signed 
by Lincoln and Stanton, he has shown to the writer. Since 
the war Pinner has been engaged in real estate enterprises 
and the study of economic questions. He is now living in 
Elizabeth, N. J. 

In the same convention with Pinner was Lewis N. Dembitz, 
a delegate from the city of Louisville, Ky., who was born in 
Prussia in 1833. He was educated abroad and read law at 
Cincinnati and Madison, Ind. From 1884 to 1888 he was 
assistant city attorney for Louisville and drafted the first 
American law establishing the Australian ballot for the Louis- 
ville election in 1888. He was a prolific writer, some of his 
works being: Kentucky Jurisprudence, Law Language for 
Short-Hand Writers, Land Titles in the United States and 
Jewish Services in Synagogue and Home. He also con- 
tributed many articles to Jewish periodicals. Dembitz was 
very proud of having served as a delegate in the convention 
of 1860 and of voting for Lincoln, whom he much admired 
but never met, a fact which he always regretted. 

Maier Hirsch, a merchant of Salem, Oregon, was one of the 
six delegates from Oregon to the Republican National Con- 
vention of 1864. He came from Hohebach, Wiirttemberg, in 
1852, and had lived in Oregon for twelve years, his home 
being in Salem. He was a brother of Solomon Hirsch, 
United States Minister to Turkey from 1889 to 1892, and of 
Edward Hirsch, at one time State Treasurer and later on a 



37 



State Senator of Oregon. While prominent and influential 
in the councils of the Republican party in Oregon and fre- 
quently asked to stand for the legislature, Hirsch steadily re- 
fused the candidacy for any office save that of delegate to the 
convention of 18G4 in which he appeared as an inconspicuous 
figure taking no part in the proceedings beyond voting with 
his delegation for Lincoln whom he much admired. He 
thereafter disappeared from public view, settling in New 
York City in 1874, where he died two years later at the age 
of forty-seven. 

Demonstrations Following the Assassination. 
In the manifestation of the public grief following the death 
of President Lincoln, which event " arrested the daily con- 
cerns of the whole civilized world " the Jews everywhere were 
prominent. Occurring as it did on the Jewish Sabbath, the 
first pulpit utterances were heard in the synagogues, the gen- 
eral character of the services therein being thus described by 
the New York Times of April 21, 1865 : 

The American flag was half-masted and the banner itself often 
enshrouded with folds of crape; long festoons of black and white 
overhanging the entrance doors. The galleries were draped in 
black and the huge tapers almost concealed beneath the sombre 
cloths of mourning. In all the synagogues, as on Saturday last, 
the prayers for the dead and dying were repeated by the min- 
isters and sorrow-stricken people and the buildings were crowded 
with assemblages whose earnest attention and fervent responses 
to the supplications of the officiating clergymen gave evidence of 
the deep grief that bowed down the hearts of the congregation. 

The Times states that the services on April 17, 1865, at 
the Synagogue Shaary Zedek, Rev. Mr. Menks officiating, 
lasted from 8.30 a. m. to 1 p. m. 

In the Synagogue Shearith Israel of New York, the rabbi 
recited an Hazcarah (prayer for the dead) for Lincoln. This, 
according to the Jewish Messenger, was the first time that 
prayer had been said in a Jewish house of worship for any 
other than those professing the Jewish religion. The innova- 



38 



tion provoked very strong remonstrance in some Jewish quar- 
ters. Rev. Mr. Leeser, however, took a liberal view. Address- 
ing the Hebrew Congregation in Washington he declared that : 

Prayers for the deceased President were in accordance with the 
spirit of the faith which the Jews inherited as children of Israel 
who recognized in all men those created like them in the image 
of God, and all entitled to his mercy, grace and pardon, though 
they have not yet learned to worship and adore Him as they do 
who have been specially selected as the bearers of His law. 

The number of Jews taking part in the funeral procession 
in the city of Washington was about 125, mainly members of 
the " Hebrew Congregation " under the marshalship of B. 
Kaufman. 

Of the 50,000 who marched in procession in the city of 
New York, 7000, according to the Jewish Messenger, were 
Jews, chiefly members of the orders of B'nai B'rith, B'nai 
Mosheh and Free Sons of Israel, including some 2000 who 
paraded with the Masonic, military and other organizations. 
The Free Sons of Israel carried a banner with the inscription : 

The Father of his Country is Dead 

The Nation Mourns him 

LINCOLN 

He is not dead but he still lives in 

the hearts of the Nation. 

The Henry Clay Debating Association of forty members, 
Samuel Adler, president, was assigned a place in the proces- 
sion, as were the employes of Heineman and Silberman's 
factory. Following the funeral procession in the city of New 
York a memorial meeting was held in Union Square under 
the direction of 100 leading citizens, Martin H. Levin, a 
merchant of prominence, being the only Jew among them. 
George Bancroft was the orator and to Rabbi Samuel M. 
Isaacs was assigned the reading of the Scripture. Referring 



39 



to this meeting Bishop Simpson said in his oration at the 
burial in Springfield: 

The Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in New York 
and a Protestant minister walked side by side in the procession, 
and a Jewish rabbi performed a part of the funeral service. 

Most of the synagogues and Jewish organizations of the city 
were represented at this gathering, delegations being present 
from the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, the 
Purim Association, the Jerusalem Society, the Mutual Benefit 
and Burial Society, Young Men's Hebrew Benevolent Fuel 
Association, Hebrew Benevolent Society and Orphan Asylum, 
and Congregations B'nai Jeshurun, Shaarai Tefila, Anshe 
Chesed, Eodef Sholom, B'nai Israel, Ahawath Chesed, Beth 
Israel, Bikur Cholim Kadisha, Atereth Israel and Mishkan 
Israel. 

The Jews of Boston joined in a funeral procession which 
ended at the Temple Ohabei Shalom, where an address was 
delivered by Eev. David Myers. In the Tribute of Nations 
covering 1200 contributions from every portion of the civil- 
ized world and published by order of Congress in 1867 the 
resolutions of this congregation appear in full, being, strange 
to say, the only tribute from American Jewish sources in the 
entire volume. They read as follows : 

Boston, April 16, 1865. 

At a vestry meeting held this day by the Hebrew Congregation 
Ohabei Shalom, worshipping in Warren street synagogue, a com- 
mittee was appointed to draw up resolutions in regard to the late 
lamentable national calamity, and the following preamble and 
resolutions were drawn up and passed unanimously: 

Whereas it has pleased an all-merciful Father to remove from 
our midst his Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of these 
United States of America, by death, at a moment when the whole 
nation rejoiced in the promised peace of our distracted country; 
and 

Whereas this death has been caused by the foul hand of an 
assassin, who came unawares upon his illustrious victim while 



40 



enjoying relaxation from his arduous duties, in the company of 
the partner of his bosom; and 

Whereas feeling that this calamity concerns every individual, 
not alone in this country, but throughout the civilized world, 
affecting as it does the capability of mankind to govern them- 
selves, and dealing a fearful blow against republican institutions: 
Therefore, 

Resolved, That we, the congregation " Ohabei Shalom," of the 
city of Boston, deeply deplore this sad event, and we humbly bow 
to our Heavenly Father, praying this last, his " greatest sacri- 
fice " of all will suffice " the monster moloch," and that the Lord 
our God will be pleased to sanctify the death of our Chief Magis- 
trate to the end that no more victims shall be required to end 
this unholy war. 

Resolved, that with grief and horror we noticed the attempted 
double assassination of the Secretary of State of the United 
States, Mr. Seward, and his family, one ripe in years, wisdom 
and honor; that this attempted assassination is scarcely less to 
be deplored than that of the Chief Magistrate, whose death the 
nation now mourns, and that no words can convey the deep sor- 
row which we feel within us that the first officer of the coun- 
try should thus be cut off from among us at the moment when 
his wisdom and prudence were about to lead us out of the chaos 
of war to the paradise of peace. 

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the bereaved family 
of the late most worthy Chief Magistrate, and that no words of 
ours can convey the deep shock, the thrill of horror, the unspeak- 
able agony with which the sad tidings were received by our 
community. But we hope that He who tempers the winds to the 
shorn lamb — He who was from the " beginning " " the protector " 
of the " widow and orphan," will also vouchsafe to be the pro- 
tector of the family of the lamented dead (dead in the flesh, but 
living in the hearts of his countrymen). May he temper their 
grief, and let them remember, and let us hope, that the good 
deeds done by him whilst on earth will intercede for him before 
the throne of Almighty God, and that the throne of martyrdom 
be sanctified unto him. 

Resolved, That the synagogue shall be draped in mourning for 
thirty days and that a prayer for the dead shall be chanted every 
Sabbath day and Mondays and Thursdays during that time. 

Resolved, That on the day of the funeral of the lamented dead, 
a funeral sermon shall be preached in the synagogue, and that 



41 



we, the members of this congregation, unanimously resolve to 
close our places of business on that day for the purpose of keep- 
ing it as a day of mourning. 

Resolved, That a copy of the above resolutions be forwarded to 
the widow of the lamented President, as also to the family of the 
Secretary of State; that they be sealed with the seal of the con- 
gregation and signed by the president and vice-president and 
secretary. 

Resolved, That the above resolutions be entered on the minutes 
of the congregation and published in the Post, Journal, and 
Herald, newspapers of this city. 

Done the 19th day of Nisan, of the year of the creation 5260 — 
April 16, 1865. 

S. Myeks, President. 

[Seal.] S. Steinbubg, Vice-President. 

N. Ehelich, Secretary. 

The Boston Traveller of April 20, 1865, notes that " Solemn 
and appropriate services were held at both the Jewish Syna- 
gogues," the second house of worship being undoubtedly that 
of the Reform Congregation Adath Israel of which Rev. 
Joseph Schoninger was rabbi. There were at this time two 
other synagogues in Boston, Mishkan Israel, Rev. Alexis Alex- 
ander rabbi, and the Dutch Jews' synagogue, the rabbi of 
which is unknown. 

The United Hebrew Congregation of St. Louis, A. S. 
Isaacs, president, ordered their place of worship draped in 
mourning and that the members wear the usual badge of 
mourning for thirty days. The congregation was addressed 
by Dr. Henry Vidaver. At the Synagogue B'nai Israel in 
the same city Rev. Mr. Kittner spoke. The Hebrew Young 
Men's Literary Association of St. Louis adopted resolutions 
drawn up by a committee composed of S. H. Lazarus. J. R. 
Jacobs, and A. S. Aloe which were published in the Mis- 
souri Republican of April 19, 1865. The Congregation 
Emanu-El of San Francisco was addressed on the day of the 
President's death by Rev. Dr. Elkan Cohn, who was handed 
a despatch announcing the assassination just as he was going 



42 



into his pulpit to deliver the weekly sermon. Rev. B. H. 
Gotthelf addressed the Congregation Adath Israel of Louis- 
ville. Congregation Mickve Israel of Philadelphia adopted 
resolutions in which Lincoln was described as 

One of the best and purest presidents, who like the law-giver 
Moses brought a nation to the verge of the haven of peace, and 
like him was not allowed to participate in its consummation. 

In the Brevard Street Synagogue, Detroit, Michigan, Eev. 
Dr. Isidore Kalisch delivered an eloquent address dwelling 
especially on Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation and 
likening him to Moses. He also referred to the President's 
tolerant views, citing as an instance his action in reference to 
the appointment of Jewish Chaplains for the army. 

According to the Chicago Evening Journal of May 2, 1865, 
the Jews were represented in the funeral procession in that 
city by the Hebrew Benevolent Association and Congregation 
Bikur Cholim. The establishment of Stein, Kramer and Com- 
pany draped their store elaborately and a portrait of Lincoln, 
heavily draped, occupied a place in the window. Foreman 
Brothers displayed a motto reading : 

" First in the Race that led to Glory's Goal." 
Say Nicolay and Hay : 

The President's body rested in the Court House in Chicago for 
two days under a canopy of sombre richness inscribed with that 
noble Hebrew lament: " The Beauty of Israel is Slain upon the 
High Places." 

Two congregations in Albany, N. Y., were conspicuous in 
the demonstrations. Eev. Max Schlesinger spoke at the 
Temple Anshe Emeth, and the Congregation Beth El held a 
special meeting at which elaborate resolutions were adopted. 
These were published in full in the Evening Journal of that 
city of April 20 and the Argus of April 21, 1865. This con- 
gregation voted to hold services three times on the day of the 
funeral, first at 6 a. m. for morning prayers, at 10 a. m. for 
a sermon by the Rev. J. Gotthold, rabbi of the congregation, 
and at 6 p. m. for evening prayers. 



43 



The resolutions of the Washington Literary and Dramatic 
Association, adopted on April 18, 1865, were published in full 
in the Washington National Intelligencer of April 24. They 
were drawn up by a committee composed of S. Wolf, Julius 
Lowenthal, F. P. Stanton, A. Hart, and J. Stralitz, and read : 

By the death of Abraham Lincoln the nation has sustained an 
irreparable loss, freedom her brightest and purest champion, 
humanity her greatest benefactor, who, more than any other 
whose name history transmits, deserves the poet's tribute of 
being " A man take him for all in all we ne'er shall look upon his 
like again." He has immortalized the country over which he so 
worthily presided by ever remaining true to freedom and the con- 
stitution affected by his inspiration; his heroism, statesmanship 
and kindness of heart during the trying ordeal of this accursed 
rebellion will be the marvel, and command the admiration of 
future ages as they have aroused the fervent homage of the 
present; the Emancipator stands side by side in our affection and 
esteem with the Father of his country. 

"While we mourn this great loss we utter our respectful pro- 
test against any leniency towards the responsible leaders of this 
accursed deed; this is yet and ever shall be a government of the 
people, more slow to anger but sure to avenge; we extend to 
Andrew Johnson, the President of the United States, our assur- 
ances of esteem and confidence and readiness to sustain him in 
all acts that will redound to the glory and perpetuity of our 
beloved country. 

Eesolutions were drawn by a committee of the Hebrew 
Benevolent Society of New York, composed of P. Franken- 
heimer, Philip Spier, M. Mayer, I. S. Solomons, and I. 
Phillips. 

District Grand Lodge No. 2 of the order of B'nai B'rith 
representing the States of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, 
Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois, and Wisconsin called the as- 
sassination " a futile attempt to overthrow the grand prin- 
ciples of freedom and to place in its stead anarchy with its 
attendant misery." The Executive Committee of the Board 
of Delegates of American Israelites resolved that 



44 



The Israelites of the United States are deeply sensible of the 
loss humanity has sustained in the painful death of the lamented 
President; that the loss strikes us with peculiar solemnity and 
significance at this momentous period of the National history 
when we behold so nigh the end of that unhallowed combination 
against the government to the hastening of which the good, the 
honest Abraham Lincoln, contributed so largely, and with all the 
zeal, the sincerity and the prudence of his kind heart, his clear 
practical judgment, his steadfast unfaltering fidelity to the Union. 

J. H. Montefiore, President of London Board of Deputies, 
wrote a letter of condolence to the Hon. Charles Francis 
Adams, the American Minister in London, requesting him to 
convey it to Mrs. Lincoln and the United States Government. 
In the House of Commons, Benjamin Disraeli spoke of the 
President's death in seconding the address to the Crown. 

Jewish citizens in several of the seceded States also joined 
in paying homage to the deceased President. In Richmond, 
Va., Rev. M. J. Michelbacher of the Synagogue Beth Ahaba 
devoted a sermon to the assassination which he characterized 
as a most horrible crime and expressed his satisfaction that 
it had not happened in Richmond. At Memphis the military 
commander of the Federal forces, having assumed control of 
the demonstrations, two Jewish congregations united with 
other denominations in a joint service held in the city park, 
these being Congregations Israel, Rabbi Tuska, and Beth El, 
Rabbi Joel Alexander. In the funeral procession in that 
city appeared Euphrates Lodge, No. 35, Order B'nai B'rith, 
with its entire membership of 167, Samuel Schloss acting as 
marshal. Rev. Dr. Bernard Illoway addressed the Congrega- 
tion Shaarey Chesed of New Orleans. The Congregation 
Termini Derech of New Orleans draped their synagogue in 
mourning and was addressed by Colonel Philip J. Joachimsen 
of New York. Citizens of all classes held a memorial meeting 
in Charleston, S. C, at which Governor Aiken presided. 
Samuel Hart, Sr., and Benjamin M. Seixas were members of 
a Committee of Fifty to draft resolutions. Unmoved by this 



45 



touching manifestation of a fallen foe the New York Tribune 
correspondent at Charleston, S. C, in a venomous letter to 
his paper assailed the majority of the Committee of Fifty as 
sympathizers with the Confederate cause, Hart and Seixas 
being with others specifically designated as " still violent 
secessionists at heart." 

The official minutes of the Lincoln Monument Association 
of Springfield record among the very first contributors to 
the fund the " Hebrew Citizens of Alton, 111.," followed 
shortly thereafter by the Hebrew Congregation of St. Joseph, 
Mo., and the Hebrew Congregation of Philadelphia. 

Dr. C. H. Liebermann, a practicing physician of Washing- 
ton, was one of the nine medical men at the death-bed of 
Lincoln, and his portrait is among the forty-seven persons in 
Alonzo Chappel's painting, The Last Hours of Lincoln, exe- 
cuted in 1867. From the prospectus of a steel-plate engraving 
of this painting we learn : 

Lincoln's family physician, Dr. Stone and Surgeon-General 
Barnes accompanied by assistant Surgeon-General Crane were in 
early attendance, and later he was visited by Doctors Hall and 
Liebermann, and other eminent physicians, all of whom agreed 
that the wound was unto death. 

Numerous contemporary newspapers referred to Dr. Lieber- 
mann's presence on this occasion and his name is mentioned 
in various books treating of the assassination. Neighbors of 
Liebermann in Washington are of the impression that he was 
a Jew, although unaffiliated with Jewish organizations. He 
was born in Riga, Eussia, September 15, 1813, and died in 
Washington, March 27, 1886. 

The flight, pursuit and remorse of Lincoln's assassin have 
been vividly portrayed by Emma Lazarus in a poem of five 
stanzas entitled " April 27th, 1865." She chose for her title 
the date of Booth's capture and death, inadvertently given a 
day in advance of the actual date. These verses first ap- 
peared in 1867 in Poems and Translations Written between the 



46 



Ages of Fourteen and Seventeen. Owing to their ambiguous 
title their existence has escaped the notice of most students 
of Lincoln. 

Inspired by the death of Lincoln, Judah Eoswald of Balti- 
more wrote a poem in Hebrew called " Lincoln's Amnesty," 
the same being published in the Jewish Messenger of June 24, 
1865. 

In its issue of May 25, 1865, this journal published an 
appreciation of Lincoln in Hebrew by Isaac Goldstein. In 
translation this reads: 

ACROSTIC 

On Abbaham Lincoln, Assassinated Nisan 18th, 5625. 

My heart overflows with a good speech. I address my work unto 
a king. Psalms, XLV. 2. 

I. 

Happy art thou, Lincoln, Who is like unto thee! 
Among kings and princes thou art exalted. 
Much thou did'st with an humble spirit. 
Thou art like a unique person in the land. 
Who among princes is like Lincoln? 
Who shall be praised like him? 

II. 
Thou hast also a name among heroes! 
Thy right hand has achieved prowess against them. 
Thou hast girded on the sword of the slain. 
Thou hast drawn the bow by night and by day. 
One Father has created us, thou hast said; 
Therefore thou hast proclaimed Freedom in thy land. 
The black people thou hast redeemed into Freedom: 
Forever they will praise and bless thy name. 

Who among princes is like Lincoln, and who can be 
praised like him? 

Isaac Goldstein, the Levite. 

Eulogies of Lincoln were pronounced by the rabbis of 
many synagogues, and some of these were printed in the 
Israelite, the Jewish Messenger, the Occident, and daily news- 



47 



papers. Of these eulogies none has been preserved in perma- 
nent form with the exception of the following: 

Liebman Adler, Address (in Fiinf Reden), Chicago, 1866. 

David Einhorn, Trauer Rede, Philadelphia, April 19, 1865. 

Henry Hochheimer, Predigt, April 19, 1865; Fest- und Fasttag, 
Baltimore, June 1, 1865. 

Sabato Morais, An Address, Philadelphia, April 19, 1865; A 
Discourse, June 1, 1865. 

Benjamin Szold, Yaterland und Freiheit, Baltimore, June 1, 
1865. 

Philip J. Joachimsen, An Address, New Orleans, April 29, 1865. 

Jonas Bondi, Trauer-Predigt, New York, April 19, 1865. 

Lincoln's Clemency. 

No phase of Lincoln's administration surpasses in interest 
the chapters dealing with the appeals to executive clemency. 
The importunities of pardon seekers and his habitual yield- 
ing to their entreaties in the face of earnest protests gave 
rise to much harsh criticism, but this rarely swerved him from 
his predetermined course of action. 

An exceptional instance of Lincoln's denial of a pardon was 
narrated by the late Eabbi Benjamin Szold, of Baltimore, in 
the case of a Jewish deserter in General Meade's army. Stop- 
ping at Washington on his way to Eappahannock station 
Eabbi Szold sought an audience with the President with a 
view of obtaining a pardon for the condemned man. Lincoln 
being engaged at a cabinet meeting at the time, Dr. Szold 
sent in his Bible with the passage from Deutoronomy xx, 8, 
marked, at the same time making his plea for the soldier. 
Presently the President emerged with the Bible in hand, 
laughing heartily, " the tears rolling down his cheeks," ac- 
cording to an account of the visit published in the Baltimore 
Herald May 24, 1896. Several other soldiers in General 
Meade's army, — Catholics and Protestants, — were awaiting 
execution at this time for a similar offence and the President 
inquired of the Eabbi whether he was interceding for the Jew 
only or for all the deserters. Lincoln refused to interfere 



48 



but gave Dr. Szold a letter to General Meade asking that 
every courtesy be shown the bearer. Meade firmly refused to 
waive the death penalty on the ground that it would be a bad 
example for the army and a serious precedent for the future. 
More fortunate in his effort to save the life of a Jewish 
deserter was Simon Wolf, of Washington, who paid a midnight 
visit to the President for that purpose. In a recent address in 
Baltimore he said : 

The scene when I called upon Mr. Lincoln is indelibly impressed 
on my memory and gave evidence of the luminous spirit, hu- 
manity and charity which characterized the great President. 
Deserters at that period were numerous, soldiers were needed and 
stern measures were demanded to preserve discipline in the deci- 
mated ranks of the Army of the Potomac. Secretary Stanton 
and the Commanding Generals were continually complaining of 
the President's leniency. The execution in this instance was 
fixed for the following day. I was accompanied by " Tom " 
Corwin, the distinguished Ohio statesman. Mr. Lincoln listened 
patiently to the pleadings of both but stood firm. At last I 
pleaded with him on lines which I knew he could not resist. The 
President turned in his chair and rang a bell. The Secretary 
answered the call and he ordered a stay of execution. The young 
soldier subsequently led the forlorn hope at the battle of Cold 
Harbor, and fell in his tracks with the flag of his country wrapped 
around him. A monument to his memory has since been erected. 
When I subsequently told the President of the tragic end of the 
boy he had so nobly pardoned, he was affected to tears. And this 
is the man whom a partisan press denounced as a " baboon " and 
an " ignoramus." 

In the archives of the War Department is recorded the 
remarkable experience of David Levy, who was granted a 
pardon by Lincoln under peculiar circumstances. Levy in 
December, 1902, applied to the Pension Bureau for a pension, 
which was refused on the ground that his name appears on the 
books of the War Department as a deserter. The records 
show that Levy first enlisted on April 19, 1861, in the 16th 
Pennsylvania cavalry, serving until July 23, 1861, when he 
was mustered out. He again enlisted August 19, 1861, and 



49 



deserted February 22, 1863. This desertion was fatal to his 
claim for pension under the Act of Congress, and he was so 
informed. He immediately wrote to the Bureau that he was 
pardoned for that desertion by President Lincoln and as evi- 
dence of the fact he forwarded to the Pension Office a small 
card, such as Lincoln habitually used in the course of his 
official business, whereon was written in his well-known 
handwriting: 

If David Levy shall enlist and serve faithfully for one year 
or until otherwise honorably discharged I will pardon him for 
the past. 

Jan. 12, 1865. A. Lincoln. 

Upon receipt of this Eugene F. Ware, the Commissioner of 
Pensions, ordered that the pardon be recognized. This card 
Levy subsequently presented to Mr. Ware, who is now its 
owner. 

In the Century Magazine, December, 1895, may be found 
numerous orders of Lincoln in reference to the appeals of 
pardon-seekers, including that of Abraham Samuels, arrested 
in Virginia in the fall of 1864 while trying to pass through 
the Union lines to obtain medical supplies for the Confederate 
army. Samuel's defense was that he " was simply trying to 
escape from the South." The matter was referred to Lincoln 
who endorsed the papers as follows: 

It is confessed in this case that Samuels when arrested had on 
his person a paper prima facie showing that he was going North 
to obtain medical supplies for the rebels. Will the officer in 
conmmand at Fort Monroe please give him an opportunity of 
trying to prove that this was not his real object and report the 
evidence, with his opinion on it, to me? 

A. Lincoln. 

After taking considerable testimony the President on De- 
cember 10, 1864, issued this order: 
Let the prisoner Samuels be discharged. 

A. Lincoln. 

Diligent research fails to reveal the identity of Samuels. 
4 



50 



Of exceptional interest was the arrest and imprisonment in 
Washington, 1864, of Goodman L. Mordecai, of South Caro- 
lina. He was the son of Benjamin Mordecai, one of the most 
prominent citizens of Charleston, and was then in his 26th 
year. He had received an honorable discharge from the Con- 
federate Army, and had been an occasional contributor to the 
Southern press. Intending to visit Nassau in the interest of 
a prominent blockade company, he left Eichmond bound for 
Washington, fortified with passports from Judah P. Benjamin, 
and the city authorities. Eeaching Washington, he was arrested, 
and, refusing to take the oath of allegiance, was imprisoned 
for several months. He then sent for Samuel A. Lewis, an 
uncle of his fiancee, Miss Ada Jackson. Lewis was editor of 
the Hebrew Leader, and Vice-President of Mt. Sinai Hospital, 
New York. He also appealed to Dr. I. Zacharie, whose close 
relations with Lincoln will be referred to later on, who took im- 
mediate steps for his release. He called on the President and 
successfully accomplished this result. In return for this act 
of kindness young Mordecai accompanied his benefactor to the 
White House to thank Lincoln for his consideration. De- 
scribing this interview, Mr. Mordecai told the writer : 

Zacharie unconsciously informed Lincoln that I had fought 
against the Government and that my father was the first con- 
tributor to the Southern Cause having been a subscriber in the 
sum of $10,000 soon after the secession of South Carolina. The 
President then grasped my hand and answered: " I am happy to 
know that I am able to serve an enemy." My release followed, on 
condition that I would not return to the South during the war. 
Proceeding to New York I found myself under the constant sur- 
veillance of the Federal detectives. I then called upon General Dix 
to whom I showed the President's order for my release which he 
examined with care and at once dismissed me, remarking: " I 
bow to higher authority! " 

On Lincoln's birthday, 1901, Mr. Mordecai contributed to 
the Neiu York Tribune a detailed account of his arrest and 
release, which was printed the following day. In the article 



51 



he ventured the statement that " one of the greatest, grandest 
characters in history was Abraham Lincoln." 

Lincoln's course in this case occasioned a scandalous edito- 
rial in the anti-administration organ — the New York World, 
of September 24, 1864, its caption being "Mr. Lincoln's 
Unionism and Bunionism." Dr. Zacharie is held up as a man 
who had been courted and flattered by high officials because 
of his intimacy with the President. He, it alleges, " has often 
left his business apartment to spend an evening in the parlor 
with this favored bunionist." Zacharie is said to have " en- 
joyed Mr. Lincoln's confidence perhaps more than any other 
private individual." The World broadly intimates that Mor- 
decai's release was obtained for a consideration and suggests 
that "there must be a reason for this remarkable intimacy 
between an obscure toe-nail trimmer and the Chief Executive 
of a great nation." 

Noteworthy Incidents. 
Several noteworthy incidents marked Lincoln's visit to New 
York when en route to Washington on February 19, 1861. 
Passing down Broadway in his barouche he may have noticed 
the establishment of Isador Bernhard and Son decorated with 
a banner with the device : " Welcome Abraham Lincoln ; we 
beg for Compromise." The same night at the Astor House 
he greeted J. Solis Eitterband of the New York bar, President 
of the Young Men's Republican Club of the City of New York, 
who had made many speeches in the campaign, marched with 
the " Wide Awakes " and worked enthusiastically for the elec- 
tion of Lincoln and Hamlin. On the following day Lincoln 
was officially received at the New York City Hall where he 
was welcomed by Mayor Fernando Wood. An impromptu 
reception followed in the course of which the Mayor an- 
nounced the presence of " Mr. Cohen " of Charleston, prob- 
ably J. Barret Cohen, remarking as he did so that the gentle- 
man was " outside the jurisdiction," bearing in mind the fact 



52 



that South Carolina had, sixty-two days before, passed an 
ordinance of secession. Whether Mr. Cohen's visit was 
prompted by admiration or curiosity does not appear in the 
Tribune account of the presentation, published the following 
day (February 20, 1861). At any rate, Mr. Lincoln extended 
a cordial greeting to the gentleman from South Carolina, 
observing as he did so that " the matter of jurisdiction makes 
no difference at all." 

Lincoln's various calls for troops met with prompt response 
from the Jews, the names of 6000 of that faith being recorded 
by Simon Wolf in The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and 
Citizen, as having served in the cause of the Union. The 
actual number serving was probably double that figure. 
Numerous appointments and promotions in the military ser- 
vice attest Lincoln's appreciation of the services rendered by 
the Jews. 

He appointed Major Leopold Blumenberg, of Maryland, 
Provost-Marshal of the third Maryland District, and Presi- 
dent Johnson subsequently promoted him Brevet-Brigadier- 
General. Edward S. Solomon, a lieutenant in an Illinois 
regiment, was ultimately brevetted Brigadier-General and 
commended for " the highest order of coolness and determi- 
nation under very trying circumstances " in the battle of 
Gettysburg. After enlisting as a private in an Indiana 
regiment Frederick Knefler rose to be Brevet-Major-General, 
the highest rank attained by any Jew in the Federal Army. 
In the first battle of Bull Eun, in 1861, Colonel Max Einstein 
commanding a Pennsylvania regiment covered the retreat of 
the Union Army, and was subsequently appointed by Presi- 
dent Lincoln United States Consul at Nuremburg, Bavaria. 
President Lincoln appointed Adolph A. Mayer of the Fourth 
New Mexico Volunteers Inspector-General of Volunteers. 
Among the recipients of Medals of Honor, authorized by 
Congress and approved by President Lincoln, were a large 
number of Jewish soldiers, both commissioned and non-com- 



53 



missioned officers, and privates. Colonel Marcus M. Spiegel 
of the 67th Ohio Infantry had been recommended for promo- 
tion to the grade of Brigadier-General but died of wounds 
received at Vicksburg before the appointment could be made. 

Conspicuous in manifestations of loyalty was Uriah P. 
Levy, of the United States Navy, the owner of Monticello, the 
former home of Thomas Jefferson. Calling on Lincoln at 
the opening of the war, he placed his entire fortune at his 
disposal. The offer being declined, he subscribed liberally to 
the war loan. Levy died March 22, 1862, devising a large 
portion of his estate in Virginia and the city of New York 
to the people of the United States, for the maintenance, at 
Monticello, of an agricultural school for the children of de- 
ceased warrant-officers of the United States Navy. Mr. Fes- 
senden of Maine, in a speech in the United States Senate 
shortly after Levy's death, estimated the value of the property 
so devised at $300,000. The constitutionality of this bequest 
gave rise to considerable discussion in the Senate. Litigation 
resulted in a reversion of the property to Levy's heirs (see 
Levy v. Levy, 33 N. Y. Reports, 97). 

A touching story is told of Lincoln's visit to the bedside of 
a dying soldier of twenty-five, Lieutenant-Colonel Leopold C. 
Newman of the 31st New York Infantry. Newman's leg had 
been shattered by grapeshot in a battle near Fredericksburg, 
Va., early in 1863. He was carried to the National Hotel, in 
Washington, where, it has been asserted, Lincoln called to see 
him bearing with him a commission as Brigadier-General, 
Newman died shortly afterwards. 

Mr. Simon Wolf, in his The American Jew as Patriot, Sol- 
dier and Citizen tells this incident, his authority being, so he 
informs the writer, a soldier of Newman's command who was 
present at Newman's death. Colonel Frank Jones, Newman's 
superior officer, at present attached to the War Department, 
states in reply to this that he has no knowledge of Lincoln's 
visit or of Newman's promotion, nor do the records of the 



54 



Department show any such promotion. That Newman's ad- 
vancement was at least contemplated seems quite probable, 
inasmuch as there appears in the Israelite of July 3, 1863, the 
statement : 

Had Newman recovered he would have received his Commission 
as Brigadier General ivhich had teen already written out for him. 

The Occident said in its issue of September, 1864: 

One Colonel Newman of New York obtained the honorary title 
of Brigadier General after he was mortally wounded; 

and in reviewing the record of Jewish soldiers shortly after 
the close of the war took occasion to say : 

We do not believe that more than one officer, a Lieutenant 
Colonel when wounded was promoted to a Brigadier General, 
just before his death. 

Unfortunately the identity of the officer is not disclosed. 

Early appreciation of Lincoln's place in history is evidenced 
by an incident at a festival given by the Jewish women of 
Pittsburg, Pa., for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission on 
December 9, 1863. Inspired by the recent victories at Gettys- 
burg and Vicksburg, which were doubtless regarded as har- 
bingers of early peace, Jacob Affelder offered the following 
toast, which was published in the Israelite a few days later: 

Abraham Lincoln, the noble Pilot, called by the voice of the 
people to the position of danger and responsibility, when trait- 
ors' hands had directed the ship of State toward the breakers of 
National Destruction. Nobly has he buffeted the waves of Dis- 
union, until now with the assistance of Providence and our 
gallant Army and Navy he has brought us within sight of our 
longed for peace. His name will be synonymous with Patience, 
Honesty and Justice. 

President Lincoln was evidently in good humor when 
visited by Mr. Simon Wolf with an invitation to attend the 
celebration of the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth in 
1864 by the Young Men's Literary Association of Washing- 
ton. Captain Isaac N. Gotthold of the 42d New York In- 



55 



fantry accompanied him. Mr. Lincoln, says Mr. Wolf, was 
drinking a cup of coffee when the two called. On learning 
the object of their visit he said : 

" Well, boys, what are you going to play? " 

When he was told "Hamlet," he said: 

" Why could I not be the grave digger of the evening; for am 
I not a fellow of infinite jest? " 

" Unfortunately," says Mr. Wolf, " the President could not come, 
but he sent a check for $25." 

For the purpose of introducing abroad certain publications 
from his pen bearing upon the mineral resources of the United 
States, Julius Silversmith, of California, an eminent metal- 
lurgist, sought the endorsement of President Lincoln. He 
presented letters of introduction from Governor James W. 
Nye, of Nevada, and United States Senator John Conness, of 
Oregon, both of whom assured Mr. Lincoln that Mr. Silver- 
smith's mission was an important one, likely to induce a large 
immigration. They further stated that his encouragement 
would be highly appreciated by the loyal people of the western 
side of the continent. Mr. Lincoln, while not to be swerved 
from his usual policy of caution in dealing with strangers, 
endorsed Governor Nye's letter as follows: 

Not personally knowing Mr. Silversmith I cheerfully endorse 
what Governor Nye says of him. 

A. Lincoln. 

April 30, 1864. 

On the letter of Senator Conness he wrote : 

I do not personally know Mr. Silversmith but Senator Conness 
who writes the above is habitually careful not to say what he 
does not know. 

April 30, 1864. 

A. Lincoln. 

The original letters above quoted are in the possession of 
the Hon. Simon W. Eosendale, of Albany, N. Y. 

Silversmith lived in San Francisco for some years before 
the Civil War. In the directory of that city for 1858 his 



56 



occupation is given as " assistant teacher at the Emanu-El 
Institute." During 1860-61-62 he was the editor and pro- 
prietor of the Mining and Scientific Press. In 1866 he wrote 
a Practical Hand-Booh for Miners, Metallurgists and Assay- 
ers, which is recognized as a standard work in the profession. 
Silversmith died in Chicago in 1894. 

To Edward Eosewater belongs the distinction of having 
with his own hands transmitted to the world from the tele- 
graph office of the War Department in Washington Lincoln's 
Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. He met the 
President twice that day and in the evening attended a ball 
at the White House. Eosewater came from Bohemia in 1854 
at the age of thirteen. He was successively peddler, clerk 
and bookkeeper. At the age of eighteen he became a tele- 
graph operator. In the Chicago Tribune, September 11, 1892, 
he tells, in an authorized interview, of a visit of the President 
to the War Department on December 13, 1862, Eosewater 
being the only telegraph operator on duty. General Burn- 
side was at this time preparing to attack the strongly in- 
trenched army of Lee at Fredericksburg, Va. Lincoln, 
evidently recalling Burnside's confessed incompetency to com- 
mand the Army of the Potomac, as expressed to himself and 
others, and filled with forebodings of disaster, went to the 
telegraph office in his slippers at 8 a. m., and remained there 
all day. Eosewater did all the telegraphing for him, some 
by dictation and some from notes. The President's fears 
proved well-founded, Burnside's force of 100,000 men being 
overwhelmingly defeated with a loss of over 10,000 killed and 
wounded. 

Eosewater was attached to the United States Military Tele- 
graph Corps 1861-1863 and transmitted General Pope's 
despatches from various battlefields. He subsequently became 
manager of the Pacific Telegraph with headquarters in 
Omaha, Neb. Later he founded the Omaha Bee, which he 
conducted from 1871 to the time of his death in 1906. 

The late Myer S. Isaacs, at one time judge of the Marine 



57 



Court of New York City, attended a reception at the White 
House in February, 1865. He was accompanied by A. S. 
Solomons and his daughter Zillah. This interesting account 
of what he saw Mr. Isaacs wrote for the Jewish Messenger 
over the signature " M." 

The President kindly assisted in the welcome and entertain- 
ment of the lady guests. We were presented and cordially 
greeted, Mr. Lincoln being particularly engaging in his remarks 
to the little daughter of the gentleman accompanying me, saying 
that he liked to see the children, and inquiring their names and 
whether he had seen them before. He is by no means so awk- 
ward as his pictures represent him; unusually tall, a head and 
shoulders above those around he had, of course, to stoop when 
speaking to most of his visitors, but his countenance strongly 
expressive of good nature as well as of resolution, an index of his 
heart, and nobody leaves the Executive Mansion without being 
fascinated by the kindly amiable bearing of the President. I 
was particularly struck with this, and in the demeanor of the 
numerous visitors of humble appearance, private soldiers, widows 
and other relatives of unfortunate or distressed members of the 
Union armies, whom I saw congregated in the ante-room on a 
subsequent day and who waited with patience and confidence 
their turn for an interview, many remaining there for hours, as 
the President's time is pretty constantly occupied, and all satis- 
fied that their petition, however unimportant to others than 
themselves, would receive the gentle attention of the Chief Magis- 
trate; and even a refusal would be couched in such kindly and 
winning language that their love and confidence in his goodness 
of heart would be diminished not at all. 

With the passing years, Mr. Isaacs conceived a passionate 
admiration for Lincoln, seizing every occasion to extol his 
virtues and public record. As evidence of his earnestness and 
enthusiasm when discussing the war President it is interesting 
to note his indignation when the New York Times, shortly 
before his death, proposed the abolition of the Lincoln- 
Birthday holiday in that State on the ground that it was 
" a monument to legislative folly." This proposition elicited 
a scathing reply to the offending newspaper (February 20, 
1903), reading as follows: 



58 



His unparalleled career from the modest Kentucky home to 
the White House, his devotion to country in the period of dire 
distress and danger, his tragic taking off, his immortal deeds, his 
trust in the common people, the lofty place he occupied among 
the leaders of men in modern times, entitle him to the distinc- 
tion due only to Washington and Lincoln — setting apart his natal 
day, for the study and appreciation of his character and achieve- 
ments, the inspiration that elevates the Nation, the lesson of a 
life dwelt upon wherever humanity feels sympathy for the op- 
pressed and downtrodden and honors unselfishness and devotion. 

One of the vast army of civilians attracted to Washington 
in the early days of the Civil War was a young Englishman, 
Dr. Isachar Zacharie, who had attained considerable celebrity 
as a skillful chiropodist. By some means he was introduced 
to Lincoln and very friendly relations resulted, their intimacy 
going so far, it is alleged, that Zacharie was entrusted with 
confidential missions to Savannah and New Orleans, being 
subsequently sent to Eichmond in the role of peacemaker, a 
statement which should be accepted cum grano salis. 

In a letter to his wife, dated Fortress Monroe, September 
23, 1863, Zacharie notes his intention of leaving the following 
day "for Dixie," under flag of truce; for what purpose does 
not appear. He expresses concern about his reception by the 
people of the South, hopes they will listen to him, and inti- 
mates that he may be long absent. Samuel Zacharie, a son, 
accepts this letter as evidence of his father's visit to Eichmond 
on behalf of President Lincoln, insists that he had interviews 
with Jefferson Davis and Judah P. Benjamin, but offers noth- 
ing in corroboration of his actual presence in Eichmond or 
interviews with the Confederate leaders. 

Of Dr. Zacharie's close relations with Lincoln there is little 
doubt. Whether these went beyond the bounds of professional 
intercourse cannot be determined, the only evidence of their 
acquaintance being a document in the handwriting of Lincoln 
now in the possession of the Zacharie family which reads as 
follows : 



59 



Dr. Zacharie has operated on my feet with great success and 
considerable addition to my comfort. 

A. Lincoln. 
Sept. 2, 1862. 

Dr. Zacharie's strong foothold in political and social circles 
in the National Capital was the subject of a column editorial 
in the New York Herald, October 3, 1862, under the caption 
" The Head and Feet of the Nation." Zacharie is described as 

A wit, gourmet and eccentric, with a splendid Roman nose, 
fashionable whiskers and eloquent tongue, a dazzling diamond 
breast-pin, great skill in his profession and an ingratiating ad- 
dress, a perfect knowledge of his business, and a plentiful supply 
of social and moral courage. 

Secretary Stanton, it adds, was unable to resist such a com- 
bination of eloquence when Zacharie called to see him with a 
proposition to treat the feet of the soldiers and he even pro- 
posed the raising of a corps of chiropodists to accompany the 
various armies. " Prior to that," says the Herald, " he had 
trimmed the feet of President Lincoln and all his Cabinet." 
After the war Dr. Zacharie resumed the practice of his pro- 
fession in the city of New York, and subsequently in London. 
In England he founded a branch of Free Masonry, known as 
the Order of the Secret Monitor, in which he wielded much 
influence. He died in London in 1897, at the age of seventy- 
two, his death being extensively noticed by the American press, 
special prominence being given to his relations to Lincoln. 

One of Lincoln's ardent admirers was a South Carolinian, 
Septima M. Collis, the daughter of David C. Levy, later a 
Philadelphia banker. She contracted a romantic marriage 
with Charles H. T. Collis, captain of an Independent Com- 
pany known as the Zouaves d'Afrique, of Philadelphia, and 
accompanied him to the front, her experience being recorded 
in a little volume A Woman's War Record. Being presented 
to President Lincoln, while the Army of the Potomac was on 
the Eappahannock, she was struck by his curious attire. She 
wrote: 



60 



He wore a dress suit, his swallow tail coat being a terrible mis- 
fit, and it puzzled me very much to tell whether his shirt collar 
was made to stand up or turn down — it was doing a little of both. 

Another Jewess who recorded her impressions of Lincoln 
was Rose Eytinge, the actress. Accompanied by Wallack and 
Davenport she went to the White House in response to an 
invitation from the President, who had witnessed their per- 
formance. In her Memoirs she makes the following record of 
this visit : 

When I was presented to the President he took my hand, and 
holding it while he looked down upon me from his great height 
said: " So this is the little lady that all us folks in Washington 
like so much! " Then with a portentous shake of his head but 
with a twinkle in his eye, he continued, " Don't you ever come 
around here asking me to do some of those impossible things you 
women always ask for, for I would have to do it and then I would 
get into trouble." 

At a social function Miss Eytinge relates she met Secretary 
Seward by whom she was not favorably impressed because " he 
was stately, cold and dignified, whereas she found Lincoln 
simple, warm-hearted and free spoken." 

President Lincoln's entry into Richmond in 1865 was wit- 
nessed by Sir Moses Ezekiel the eminent sculptor, a native 
resident of that city, who had served in the Confederate Army. 
The then budding artist recognizing the President's presence 
in Richmond as an historic event, made at this time a close 
study of Lincoln. This enabled him some thirty-five years 
later to execute for Nathaniel Myers of New York a striking 
bust of the great Emancipator. 

Note. — Additional data on the subject-matter of this monograph, 
not now accessible, are reserved for a future publication. 



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